AN ISLAND EXISTENCE 99 



horrible darkness of the night. But as the monster moved into 

 the open ocean and on into oblivion, the hummingbirds were 

 flung by sheer centrifugal force to the outer rim of the vortex. 

 Weary, cold, hungry, the harassed pair saw the gray dawn 

 come. Beneath was a seething expanse of angry ocean; huge 

 waves, black from the great depths and white with foam, met 

 the eye on all sides. No land anywhere. On and on the weary 

 birds vibrated, scudding with the wind. All direction was 

 lost; to keep aloft away from the waves was their only purpose. 

 Somehow they were still together; only by sheer determination 

 and the gift of marvelous powers of flight did they survive. 

 The wind then died rapidly but the waves still mounted to the 

 skies. Their wings moved slower, the grueling hours had taken 

 their toll of reserve energy. Off in the distance they sighted a 

 thin line of brown tinged with subtle green. An island! With 

 a last burst of energy the hummingbirds moved straight as 

 arrows to the land. It was low, flat, barely carpeted with vege- 

 tation, but land. Scarcely able to move, the mites sank ex- 

 hausted on a plant. Their heads drooped, wings sagged loosely, 

 they slept. 



An hour or two passed. The regenerated birds moved again, 

 chittering and calling to each other. After the hurricane all was 

 quiet, the air so still, the roaring had ceased. A blossom nodded 

 gaily on a slender fingered cactus plant, deep red with a yellow 

 circle of stamens. One of the hummers settled on its lip and 

 thrust its bill deep. It was joined by its companion. Tiny in- 

 sects were snared on their wire-thin tongues. Another blossom 

 provided sweet nectar and more insects, microscopic spiders 

 and gnats. Presently the two slept again, side by side on a 

 prickly pear spine. All through the night they rested, assimilat- 

 ing the energy of flower-haunting insects. Days passed and 

 they hunted together, the dreary hours of the storm forgotten. 

 Then came a day when, unlike all the others, the male felt 



