The National tribune., 1902-07-24
The RUBY=THROAT.
Our Only Hummingbird and Its Flower
FayOrites.
BY NELTJE BLANCHAN.

Arctic Circle leaving behind him for n
season those tropical delights so dear to
400 or more stay-at-home relatives, while
he, the sole representative of this charm
ing New World family found east of the
Mississippi and north of Florida, spends
half his life among us in voluntary exile:
How it stirs the imagination to picture
the solitary, tiny migrant, mere atom OF
bird life, moving above the range OF
human sight through the vast dome of
sky, lone wandering but not lost.
Borne swiftly onward by rapidly yibrat-
ing wings that measure barely two inches
in length, he covers the thousands of miles
between his Winter home and his Sum
mer one by easy stages and arrives at his
chosen destination, weather permitting, at
approximately the same date year after
year In tropical America, where vegeta-
ton is prodigal of bloom and insect life
fairly teens, the rubythroat finds himself
among host of rivals for every drop of
nectar secreted in the flowers and for
every minute insect his tongue Graves.
| But the competition for food, however
keen, is no stronger than every creature
requires to keep its faculties thoroughly
| alive. Presently even the luXurant tropl-
cal vegetation takes rest; insect lie pc
comes dormant: there is not food enough
| for ALL and hunger. the sharpest of spurs,
begins to prick. How did the ruby throat
learn of our Summer at the North. and
that by following the course of the sun he
might live in perpetual abundance
Doubtless his ancestors for ages back
wandered farther and farther northward
| wear by year in search of food. finding
.rcoura cement all the way, and through
what scientists call the instinct of orien-
alton; that is, the Law Of reversed direc-
ton, traced their way back to the tropics,
even from Labrador Stirred by the same
| ,,ttIS, int rant mn arch gln
pressed by competition in the great CEN
| ters of trade at home, migrate to ChlI;a
or the Philippines. where they may have
the whole field to themselves.
Before the coming of the Europeans to
these shores with their imported trees,
vines, shrubbery and Towering plants
what flowers in our area of Natures gar
den undertook to feed the ruby-throat!
| 1t has been learned that just as there
are fly, bee, beetle, wasp, butterfly anr
moth flowers. so there are flowers which
avowcdly cater to the hummingbrd He
| is an exacting little guest. demandin"
much of his entertainer who would in
turn be served by him. First of ali. he
likes to have a vivid advertisement to at
tract his eye when he is flashing about
through the sunshine in search of food
Some one once asked Eugene Field what
was his favorite color. WHY, | like any
color at all, so long as it's red he re
plied-an answer which the ruby-throat
made to the flowers ages ago. Il will be
noticed that the blossoms which the bird
mOnopolizes are either red or orange: pos
sibly the latter please him for the sake OF
the red that was mixed with the yellow
when their corollas were painted.
| Such flowers as cater to insects must
provide a landing place, a lip or fiattened
platform of some kind; but this the hum
mingbird, which sucks with his wings in
motion, of course does not require. Nor
does perfume appeal to him. Pathinders
to the nectary-little dark lines or patches
of bright color on the petals such as the
bee likes to see on his fowers-the hum
mingbird may ignore. But he does de-
nand that his red or orange flowers shall
hide away their nectar in deep tubes.
where the mob cannot drain them and
where even his most threatening rivals,
the larger bumblebees. moths and butter
flies, will find it difficult to extract. From
the tip of his needle-like bill his tongue
can be ran out at will and turned in any
direction to lick up the last drop of sweets
in a curved cornucopia, whereas both bee
and butterfly must insert their tongues in
a straight line. Here he has great ad-
vantage over them.
Again. he stipulates that the wild flow
ers which cater to him here shall bloom so
as to feed him in orderly succession while
IL SullS HIS W itlIiiiH aNts
from the tropics. not to gorge him at one
time and Starve him at another
In the Southern States. through which
he is passing in April, wooded hillsideS
and thickets are already gay with whOrls
of the coral honeysuckle's brilliant, slen-
der. tubular flowers, faunted from the
tips of the branching vine where the dull
est eye must be arrested by their beauty
Into these deep wells he plunges his bill
and finds ample refreshment on his jour
ney, especially when he adds to his menu
some of the gauZy-winged little insects
which have taken shelter from the Spring
winds within the orange-lined red trum-
pets. By carrying the ripe pollen shed
from the anthers of one flower to the
stigma of another, the ruby-throat pays
the only price asked for his generous en-
tertainment The coral hOneysuckle's nee
tar can scarcely be reached by bees: its
trumpets could not be seen after dark by
the moths; moreover. it has no fragrance
to guide them, but it pleases the ruby
throat in every essential respect.
What is the next flower to spread his
feast? With a broader and more north
erly range than the coral honeysuckle's,
the painted-cup or Indian paint-brush
scatters its vivid scarlet tufts through the
fresh green grass on meadow and prairie
in May, its blooming season extending to
July. Usually the first hummingbird Of
the season is seen suspended as if by
magic over these glowing flakes of fire.
In this species, not the flowers them
selves-fOr they are greenish yellow-but
the floral bracts which enfold them are
vermilliOn advertisements to catch the
ruby-throats eye. Other members of the
fgwort family. to which the painted-cup
belongs, wear the bees favOrite color, and
have provided landing place on their
lower lips for their benefactors: but here,
what would be superf1uous at the painted
cups entrance, nature has eliminated.
Closely following the painted-cup, and
indeed, partly overlapping its season,
comes the graceful, swinging, rock-loving
cOlumbine. Inasmuch as both these flow
ers rarely grow in the same neighborhood,
and as increased numbers of ruby-thrOat
migrants need to be fed at their blooming
season. there is ample opportunity for
both .rivals to flourish. In the swollen
tips of each of the five inverted red and
yellow horns of plenty which go to make
up a columbine, nectar is secreted. Small
bees with their short tongues may we'll
abandon hope of reaching it. Owing to
the position of the flower, butterflies,
which would have to place themselves up
side down, could scarcely hold on by their
weak legs while sucking, and their tongues
1ex readily only when directed downward
toward their bodies. Large bumblebees,
to which the shOrter-spurred blue wild
columbine of Europe is perfectly adapted,
find our species so difficult to drain that,
rather than attempt the task, they, too,
often nip holes in the nectaries, just as
fboy do in tho ri Int oh p,., &c,