134 TROPICAL NATURE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. 



The extreme pugnacity of humming-birds has been 

 noticed by all observers. Mr. Gosse describes two 

 meeting and chasing each other through the labyrinths 

 of twigs and flowers till, an opportunity occurring, the 

 one would dart with seeming fury upon the other, and 

 then, with a . loud rustling of their wings, they would 

 twirl together, round and round, till they nearly came to 

 the earth. Then they parted, and after a time another 

 tussle took place. Two of the same species can hardly 

 meet without an encounter, while in many cases distinct 

 species attack each other with equal fury. Mr. Salvin 

 describes the splendid Eugenes fulgens attacking two 

 other species with as much ferocity as its own fellows. 

 One will knock another off its perch, and the two will 

 go fighting and screaming away at a pace hardly to be 

 followed by the eye. Audubon says they attack any 

 other birds that approach them, and think nothing of 

 assaulting tyrant-shrikes and even birds of prey that 

 come too near their home. 



Display of Ornaments by the Male. It is a well- 

 known fact, that when male birds possess any unusual 

 ornaments, they take such positions or perform such 

 evolutions as to exhibit them to the best advantage while 

 endeavouring to attract or charm the females or in 

 rivalry with other males. It is therefore probable that 

 the wonderfully varied decorations of humming-birds, 

 whether burnished breast-shields, resplendent tail, crested 

 head, or glittering back, are thus exhibited ; but almost 

 the only actual observation of this kind is that of Mr. 

 Belt, who describes how two males of the Florisuga 

 mellivora displayed their ornaments before a female 

 bird. One would shoot up like a rocket, then, suddenly 



