336 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Mrs. Charles W. Melcher, of Homosassa Springs, Fla., describes 

 a flight that, from its formal, regular character, was probably a 

 variant of the usual courtship display, although there was no dip- 

 ping — the bird progressing on a level line back and forth — and 

 although Mrs. Melcher did not see a female bird in the vicinity. 

 She writes to Mr. Bent: "Instead of the circular flight he flew in a 

 straight line. Facing the north, he hovered, then moved eastward 

 about 3 feet, then hovered, then moved eastward again for the same 

 distance, continuing thus until he had covered perhaps 25 feet. Then, 

 still facing north, he moved toward the west in the same manner, back 

 to his starting point. I saw him cover the distance four times, twice 

 east and twice west. The fact that he seemed to move sideways makes 

 this a fantastic story, but I think that I have seen the birds that come 

 to our feeders move in almost every direction. 



"My attention was first attracted to this flight by the regulaHty 

 of a humming sound out in the garden. There was a hum, then a 

 second's pause, then another hum, each humming and each pause 

 being of equal length. The humming was made, of course, while he 

 hovered, and lasted perhaps three or four seconds. The pause was 

 very short, just the time it took him to move 3 or 4 feet. The sounds 

 of humming and twittering were so different from usual that I went 

 to the door expecting to see some sort of flight that was out of the 

 ordinary. 



"Another performance we witnessed lasted two or three minutes. 

 A male and a female were flying up and down. They were facing 

 each other with tails spread, and there was much twittering. They 

 covered a distance of 5 or 6 feet, and their flight was almost vertical. 

 When he was at the top of his flight she was at the bottom of hers, 

 and when she was at the top he was at the bottom. They were about 

 2% feet apart. There was no thrusting at each other until, at the 

 last, they came together for an instant on the windowsill. I was too 

 far aAvay to see if the contact was friendly." 



Charles L. Wliittle (1937) presents a full account of the actions of 

 a male hummingbird during several weeks before egg-laying time — 

 nine days of watching for a mate, weeks of courtship after she 

 arrived, and after the culmination of his wooing, the almost imme- 

 diate cessation of display. The bird came to his station in Peter- 

 boro, N. H., on May 21 "and began a long vigil lasting until May 

 30th, believed to be a search for a female." He continues : 



This vigil took place from three observation posts overlooking a circular 

 garden, one on an aerial, one on a dead branch of an elm, and a third on a dead 

 twig at the top of an apple tree, all these perches being from fifteen to twenty 

 feet from the ground. For the major portion of each day he occupied these 

 perches, moving from one to another, and while perching he continually moved 

 his head from side to side through an arc of 60-70 degrees. One cannot well 



