RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD. 589 



grant Gelsemium (Carolina Jessamine), the twin-leaved 

 Bignonia,* and the white-robed Mylocarium,f with a host 

 of daily expanding flowers, invite our little sylvan guest 

 to the retreats he had reluctantly forsaken. Desultory 

 in his movements, roving only through the region of 

 blooming sweets, his visits to the Northern States are de- 

 layed to the month of May. Still later, as if determined 

 that no flower shall " blush unseen, or waste its sweet- 

 ness on the desert air, " our little sylph, on wings as 

 rapid as the wind, at once launches without hesitation 

 into the flowery wilderness which borders on the arctic 

 circle. 



The first cares of the little busy pair are now bestowed 

 on their expected progeny. This instinct alone pro-, 

 pelled them from their hybernal retreat within the tropics ; 

 strangers amidst their numerous and brilliant tribe, they 

 only seek a transient asylum in the milder regions of their 

 race. With the earliest dawn of the northern spring, 

 in pairs, as it w^ere with the celerity of thought, they 

 dart, at intervals, through the dividing space, till they 

 again arrive in the genial and more happy regions of 

 of their birth. The enraptured male is now assiduous 

 in attention to his mate ; forgetful of selfish wants, he 

 feeds his companion with nectared sweets; and jealous of 

 danger and interruption to the sole companion of his de- 

 lights, he often almost seeks a quarrel with the giant 

 birds which surround him ; he attacks even the King- 

 Bird, and drives the gliding Martin to the retreat of his 

 box. The puny nest is now prepared in the long accus- 

 tomed orchard or neighbouring forest. It is concealed 

 by an artful imitation of the mossy branch to which it is 

 firmly attached and incorporated. Bluish-grey lichens, 

 agglutinated by saliva, and matched with surrounding 



* Bignonia capreolata. f Called the Buck-wheat tree. 



50 



