The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird (ArchUochus 



colubris) 

 By I. N. Mitchell 



Length : About 334 inches. Needs no description, as it is the only hummer 

 hving in the eastern states. 



Ransre: Breeds from southeastern Saskatchewan and central Quebec south 

 to Gulf Coast, west to North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and central Texas; 

 winters from middle Florida and Louisiana through southern Mexico and Central 

 America to Panama. 



Of the five hundred or more species of this strictly American family, the 

 eastern United States is favored by the presence of only one, the ruby-throat, 

 nor is this species as common as might be desired. Compared to the abundance 

 of its kind in the far west it is rare indeed. As if afraid of being too prodigal 

 of her gifts, Nature has denied the hummingbird song, and the harsh squeaks 

 of these tiny sprites are far better adapted to making war than love. Truth is, 

 the hummer has a sharp temper and not only engages in warfare with its own 

 kind, but attacks any bird, however large, that ventures to dispute its territorial 

 rights. These are not small, for in its own estimation it is literally "Lord of all 

 it surveys." The male is an inconstant swain, and no sooner is the nest made — 

 and in the making he takes no part — and the eggs laid than he departs, leaving 

 the joys and cares of housekeeping to his erstwhile mate. While the nectar of 

 flowers is eaten in large quantities a creature so vivacious as the hummer could 

 hardly sustain life on diet so thin, and the bird adds to its bill of fare a liberal 

 supply of minute insects and spiders of various sorts. 



The ruby-throat introduces us to a very large family of very small birds 

 found only in America, and mainly in tropical America. A few of the five 

 hundred species stray beyond the tropics and appear in the United States. 



No collection of birds is more gorgeous than a group of these brilliantly 

 colored sprites. They make up to America for the absence of the pheasants and 

 birds of paradise of the far East. 



Our own dainty ruby-throat, the only hummer to venture east of Texas 

 and the Rocky Mountains, is very modest in its coloring when compared Avith 

 many of its Brazilian relatives ; yet being the only one we have, we think it 

 very fine indeed, and exhaust our supply of beauty adjectives whenever favored 

 with a view of the flaming ruby gorget of the male or the tiny nest of his dainty 

 mate. Fortunate is he who finds this smallest of all bird dwellings, and more 

 so if he gets a peep at the two white, bean-sized eggs or the newly hatched young 

 no larger than common bumblebees. 



It is not the infrequency of the nest, but its small size and artful conceal- 

 ment, that makes it hard to find. It is saddled closely upon a limb and appears 

 to be a part of it ; it is neatly shingled over with lichens or bits of bark, thus 

 completing its concealment. 



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