Hummingbird WESTERN BIRDS 



color is a deep rose-pink or cerise, which flashes forth in 

 dazzling brightness as the bird turns his head. One 

 queer thing about these bright patches is that in certain 

 lights they are a velvety black; then, as the head turns, 

 they fairly blind one with their beauty. It is as if the 

 bird had flashed his dark lantern upon you. 



The female lacks the bright crown patch and has only 

 a narrow streak of red running down the middle of the 

 throat from the bill. The tail is rounded and part of 

 the feathers are white-tipped. The young males get the 

 bright throat patch in the fall. 



One distinctive thing about the Anna Hummingbird 

 which attracts attention and puts him in a class by him- 

 self, so far as Hummingbirds are concerned, is that he 

 actually sings. This song is the most amusing of all 

 bird music, being a wheezing, grating noise which might 

 be compared to the filing of a saw, or the effort of some 

 insect, Te-nit, te-nit, te-nit, tzip, tzip, tzip, tee-tee-tee- 

 tee-tee he squeals in a high-pitched, weak voice, which, 

 however, carries well and can be heard for some distance 

 if one's ear be attuned to Hummingbird efforts. I have 

 heard the midget sing his insect song from the first peep 

 of daybreak until dark, with only short intervals for 

 flower-sipping. Perched on a small twig where all may 

 enjoy him, he pours forth his lay with such evident 

 delight that the listener, though suppressing a smile at 

 this performance, cannot help but enter into the joy of 

 the midget. You feel sure that the little singer believes 

 that he is flooding the whole world with a matchless 

 melody. How can he know that to the human listener it 

 is a mechanical performance, repeated with clock-like 

 regularity without one vestige of real melody? But 

 then he is not singing for human ears; oftentimes it is 

 simply for his own amusement. When you remember 

 that, you are filled with a mad desire to squeeze the 

 little darling, or in some way to apologize to him for 



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