352 BISTORT OF THE 



Sp. Char. "Tail in the male deeply forked; the feathers all narrow lanceo- 

 late-acute. In the female, slightly rounded and emarginate; the feathers 

 broader, though pointed. Male: Uniform metallic green above; a ruby red gor- 

 get (blackish near the bill), with no conspicuous ruff; a white collar on the 

 jugulum; sides of body greenish; tail feathers uniformly brownish violet. Fe- 

 male: Without the red on the throat; the tail rounded and emarginate, the in- 

 ner feathers shorter than the outer; the tail feathers banded with black, and 

 the outer tipped with white; no rufous or cinnamon on the tail in either sex. 

 Young: Males are like the females; the throat usually spotted, sometimes with 

 red; the tail is, in shape, more like that of the old male." 



Iris dark brown; bill, legs, feet and claws black. 



The above are fresh measurements of an adult pair. From 

 dimensions as given by others, they probably average a little 

 larger. 



These hardy little beauties begin to arrive from the south as 

 soon as the cherry and apple trees are in blossom; the males 

 several days in advance; brave, pugnacious little fellovs^s, that, 

 during the mating season, will fight their rivals for their lady loves, 

 till death; and in defense of their homes boldly attack the larger 

 birds, and often dart at and try to frighten man away. They 

 breed from the Gulf coast north to at least the fifty-seventh par- 

 allel. The following beautiful description of their flights and 

 manner of feeding is taken from "Our Birds in their Haunts," 

 by Mr. Langille: 



"There are many birds the flight of which is so rapid that 

 the strokes of their wings cannot be counted, but here is a spe- 

 cies with such nerve of wing that its wing strokes cannot be 

 seen. 'A hazy semicircle of indistinctness on each side of the 

 bird is all that is perceptible.' Poised in the air, his body 

 nearly perpendicular, he seems to hang in front of the flowers 

 which he probes so hurriedly, one after the other, with his long, 

 slender bill. That long, tubular, fork-shaped tongue may be 

 sucking up the nectar from those rather small cylindrical blos- 

 soms, or it may be capturing tiny insects housed away there. 

 Much more like a large sphynx moth, hovering and humming 

 over the flowers in the dusky twilight, than like a bird, appears 



