90 ACCOUNT OF THE RED-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD. 



never leave the torrid zone. Some of them, indeed, have their 

 throat adorned with the most brilliant colours. In one point 

 of view, it is of a bright green ; in another, it has the fire and 

 brilliancy of the ruby ; in a third, its sides are covered with 

 gold ; and if we look at the bird underneath, it presents the 

 sombre hue of the garnet. It is impossible to describe the 

 numerous shades of colouring which it exhibits. This hum- 

 ming-bird retires during the winter to the Floridas, and is 

 rarely met with in the Antilles. 



" It is not wild, but as soon as any one approaches in order 

 to capture it, it springs up and vanishes like lightning. 

 These little beings are extremely envious of each other. If 

 several of them should meet on the same tree, when in blos- 

 som, they attack one another with the greatest impetuosity, 

 and continue the pursuit with so much ardour and pertinacity, 

 that they will fly into a room, where they continue the com- 

 bat, which is concluded only by the flight of the vanquished 

 and the loss of a few feathers. When the flowers are faded, 

 they evince their vexation and anger by tearing off the petals, 

 with which they strew the ground. 



u These humming-birds cannot support the total deprivation 

 of liquid honey for more than twelve or fourteen hours at 

 the most*; and they frequently die from this cause in the 

 autumn; when, if they have been detained by a late brood be- 

 yond the proper period of their departure, and the flowers 

 are destroyed by early frosts, the elasticity of their wings is 

 weakened by the want of nourishment. The movements of 

 the bird are no longer executed with that velocity which 

 holds it suspended over the blossom that contains its food. 

 The more their want increases, the more their powers dimi- 

 nish ; they frequently alight, they fly less swiftly, they rest 

 themselves on the ground, languish, and die. Their young, 

 w r hen hatched late in the season, are exposed to this danger, 

 and may frequently be met with in the autumn perishing in 

 this way. 



"The difficulty of obtaining these beautiful birds, without 

 injuring their plumage, has given rise to the invention of 

 several different modes of catching them. Some drown them 

 by means of a syringe ; others kill them with a pistol loaded 

 with sand ; and indeed, when very near to them, the explo- 



* Audubon observes, that the humming-bird is insectivorous, and that 

 it inserts its bill into the flowers in order to extract the minute insects that 

 live in their interior, and thus relieves them from these enemies ; and that 

 they also catch many small flies while on the wing. He says, " The nectar 

 or honey which they sip from the different flowers, being of itself insuffi- 

 cient to support them, is used more as if to allay their thirst." 



