348 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



It is true that the ruby-throated hummingbird bears not the slight- 

 est resemblance to any other bird occurring in the Eastern and Mid- 

 dle United States. It is sometimes mistaken, however, for the 

 hawk moths, which hover about flowers in the manner of a humming- 

 bird. 



The adult male differs from the female and the immature bird 

 in possessing a highly colored throat, which gleams in the sunlight 

 like a glowing coal, oftentimes nearer coppery brass than true ruby. 

 The male's tail is plainly forked and is not marked by the white 

 spots that distinguish the rounded tail of the female and the young 

 bird. 



Eneinies. — In addition to the dangers of migration, notably the 

 occurrence of frost when the hummingbird overruns the advance of 

 spring, there are other hazards, chiefly of an accidental nature, im- 

 periling the life of the bird. 



Kalph E. Danforth (1921) speaks of a bird caught in "a pendulous 

 mass of cobweb" from which he freed it with some difficulty, and 

 Bradford Torrey (1903) relates what he calls "a pretty story" told 

 to him by an observer whom he describes as "a seeing man." The 

 man, hearing "the familiar, squeaking notes of a hummer, and think- 

 ing that their persistency must be occasioned by some unusual trou- 

 ble, went out to investigate. Sure enough, there hung the bird in a 

 spider's web attached to a rosebush, while the owner of the web, a 

 big yellow^-and-brown, pot-bellied, bloodthirsty rascal, was turning 

 its victim over and over, winding the web about it. Wings and legs 

 were already fast, so that all the bird could do was to cry for help. 

 And help had come. The man at once killed the spider, and then, 

 little by little, for it was an operation of no small delicacy, unwound 

 the mesh in which the bird was entangled." 



Joseph Janiec sends the following story to Mr. Bent : "Wliile I was 

 wandering through a large hollow one June afternoon, my attention 

 was attracted to the unusual waving of a pasture thistle. No air was 

 stirring, and my curiosity prompted me to ascertain the cause of the 

 movements. As I approached the thistle I noticed what I at first 

 supposed to be a large dragonfly impaled on the prickly purple 

 flower; closer examination, however, revealed a male ruby-throated 

 hummingbird stuck to the flower, his wings not being involved in the 

 contact but his stomach feathers adhering to the prickly, pointed 

 stamens. Cutting off the flower, I carried it and the bird home and 

 carefully removed the bird. Although it lost a few feathers in the 

 operation, the little bird flew away unharmed." 



There is a surprising record from California telling of the cap- 

 ture of an unidentified species of hummingbird by a fish. Mary E. 

 Lockwood (1922) says, quoting from a letter: "We were seated by 



