HUMMING-BIRDS. 133 



to six in the afternoon humming-birds are to be seen 

 whirring about the trees by scores ; their motions being 

 unlike those of any other birds. They dart to and fro 

 so swiftly that the eye can scarcely follow them, and 

 when they stop before a flower it is only for a few 

 moments. They poise themselves in an unsteady manner, 

 their wings moving with inconceivable rapidity, probe 

 the flower, and then shoot off to another part of the 

 tree. They do not proceed in that methodical manner 

 which bees follow, taking the flowers seriatim, but skip 

 about from one part of the tree to another in the most 

 capricious way. Mr. Belt remarks on the excessive 

 rapidity of the flight of the humming-bird giving it a 

 sense of security from danger, so that it will approach 

 a person nearer than any other bird, often hovering 

 within two or three yards (or even one or two feet) of 

 one's face. He watched them bathing in a small pool 

 in the forest, hovering over the water, turning from side 

 to side by quick jerks of the tail ; now showing a throat 

 of gleaming emerald, now shoulders of glistening 

 amethyst ; then darting beneath the water, and rising in- 

 stantly, throw off a shower of spray from their quivering 

 wings, and again fly up to an overhanging bough and 

 commence to preen their feathers. All humming-birds 

 bathe on the wing, and generally take three or four dips, 

 hovering between times about three or four inches above 

 the surface. Mr. Belt also remarks on the immense 

 numbers of humming-birds in the forests, and the great 

 difficulty of seeing them ; and his conclusion is, that in 

 the part of Nicaragua where he was living they equalled 

 in number all the rest of the birds together, if they did 

 not greatly exceed them. 



