HUMMINGBIRDS 



broken, its plumage irrevocably disheveled. It had 

 ceased to be a recognizable bird, it had become a 

 blur of unthinkable vitality — a visible dissolution 

 of minute jungle life. 



I watched it, almost hypnotized, and was about 

 to reach out and touch it to see if my eyes were 

 actually recording a real phenomenon, when the 

 droning seemed to gather volume and force — and 

 a huge raindrop splashed on my forehead. The 

 courtship song of one of the smallest of birds was 

 continued and carried up to the heavens in the 

 first roll of thunder of the onrushing storm. Close 

 over the trees the clouds were billowing swiftly 

 past, while about me the only breath of movement 

 was from the infant whirlwind of the humming- 

 bird's wings. 



With the dying rumble of the first thunder the 

 female left her perch for the third and last time, 

 and now the two birds, close together, beak to toe, 

 rose steadily up; the last I saw of them, a glimpse 

 through the highest branches, as they caught the 

 force of the first blast, and drifted, so close to- 

 gether that they seemed a single mote, toward 

 the heart of the jungle. 



183 



