Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-08
SUMMERTIME
BIZ D. @. PEArrm.

A whir at the window pane where the
boneysuckle twines, the darting Of q
bill almost as slender as q moths
tongue. poised flight, and ne Is gone
the rupy-throated humminghird. Out
Of more than hundred tropical species,
the smallest and most brilliant birds in
the world, this Is the only one that ven
lures into Eastern United States, though
Southern California is favored by half
a dozen sorts of hummingbirds.
All hummingbirds> are dazzling. If
you don't believe 1t, 60 to the Pam
American Building and look first at the
butterflies on exhibit there. You will
swear that they surpass In gorgeous
coloration any animal. Then look at
the hummingbirds and eat your words.
Our one species, II not the most glori-
Gus, has nothing to apologize for. What
most fascinates me about him Is his
resemblance to moth. He is almost
as small as the largest of the sphinx
moths. His habits of feeding are moth
like, since he seeks the nectar in the
long -tubed flowers, and, like the moths,
performs the rites Of pollination in ex-
change for nectar. And the blur-like
speed OF his wings, and. above all, q
strange lowering flight. like bees, are
striking resemblances in a bird to the
insect world.
1t Is hard to imagine that a hum
mingbird ever simply takes wing and,
flying in q straight line, migrates long
distance. I never catch him at any
thing except hanging upon the warm
Summer air, travelling enthusiastically
up and down over all the vines In
flower. He dearly loves the early morn
ing and the late afternoon, and the cool
airs after q thunderstorm, when the
light is long and gold, the midges fly
and the odors of flowers come out.
The hummingbird's nest Is found
around the District only by skillful eyes,
aud the only time T ever came on one
IL proved to be miraculous and miria-
ture performance. Lichens, glued to-
gether with a sort of saliva from the
birds mouth that sets like sement, clev-
erly matched the exterior with the sur
roundlngs in an apple tree. Inside the
soft down Of the plane trees fluffy
seeds lined the nest and here the eggs
are laid and the mother fed with nectar
from the long bill of her mate.
1t is said that he knows no fear and
Will attack even the kingbird. who at
lacks eagles. have never heard the
hummingbird utter a sound, though the
wings make a soft whirring: and / have
never seen them nudge chasing. though
they do eat midges. there being no truth
in the superstition that they live only
on nectar.
1t was one Of the classic old object
lessons Of science that flowers with long
tubular corollas are specially adapted for
Iertilization by hummingbirdS. It seems
to me more likely that hummingbirds.
with bills half as long as their bodies
are specially adapted for the purposes
OF cylindrical flowers. The At between
bill and corolla is so perfect that at
first thought it would seem that some
benevolent intelligence must have de-
vised flower and bird for each other.
But on reflection we see that small
enough insects, even without long
tongues. can crawl into the honeysuckle
or the trumpet creeper and do the work
quite as well. And the hummingbird.
who also visits flowers with saucer
shaped corollas, has on those occasions
land they could be the ma jority) no
need of any such evolutionary extreme
or Gf you only believe in special crea-
tom any such elaborate device as his
Dill. All that we are left with after
starting out SO confidently with the |
assertion that trumpet creeper and |
are perfectly adapted to |
each others needs is the rather barren
fact that when any long billed bird and |
long tubular flower come into conjunc- |
ton the results are strikingly happy, |
but by no means essential to the ex- |
Istence Of either. Thus the riddle of |
ifes manifoldness of form turns out !,
to be too complex for hasty theories, |
however symmetrical or logical.