HUMMING BIRD. 213 



yellow flower which groAvs in great luxuriance along the sides of creeks 

 and rivers, and in low moist situations ; it grows to the height of two 

 or three feet, and the flower which is about the size of a thimble, hangs 

 in the shape of a cap of liberty above a luxuriant growth of green 

 leaves. It is the Balsamina noli me tangere of botanists, and is the 

 greatest favorite with tlie Humming Bird of all our other flowers. In 

 gome places where these plants abound you may see at one time ten or 

 twelve Humming Birds darting about, and fighting with and pursuing 

 each other. About the twentieth of September they generally retire to 

 the south. I have, indeed, sometimes seen a solitary individual on the 

 twenty-eighth and thirtieth of that month, and sometimes even in Octo- 

 ber ; but these cases are rare. About the beginning of November they 

 pass the southern boundary of the United States into Florida. 



The Humming Bird is three inches and a half in length, and four and 

 a quarter in extent ; the whole back, upper part of the neck, sides 

 under the wings, tail coverts, and two middle feathers of the tail, are 

 of a rich golden green ; the tail is forked, and, as well as the wings, of 

 a deep brownish purple ; the bill and eyes are black ; the legs and feet, 

 both of which are extremely small, are also black ; the bill is straight, 

 very slender, a little inflated at the tip, and very incompetent to the 

 exploit of penetrating the tough sinewy side of a crow, and precipitat- 

 ing it from the clouds to the earth, as Charlevoix would persuade his 

 readers to believe.* The nostrils are two small oblong slits, situated 

 at the base of the upper mandible, scarcely perceivable when the bird 

 is dead, though very distinguishable and prominent when living ; the 

 sides of the belly and belly itself dusky white, mixed with green ; but 

 Avhat constitutes the chief ornament of this little bird, is the splendor 

 of the feathers of his throat, which when placed in a proper position, 

 glow with all the brilliancy of the ruby. These feathers are of singular 

 strength and texture, lying close together like scales, and vary when 

 moved before the eye from a deep black to a fiery crimson and burning 

 oranjic. The female is destitute of this ornament ; but difi'crs little in 

 other appearance from the male ; her tail is tipped with white, and the 

 whole lower parts are of the same tint. The young birds of the first 

 season, both male and female, have the tail tipped with white, and the 

 whole lower parts nearly white ; in the month of September the orna- 

 mental feathers on the throat of the young males begin to appear. 



On dissection the heart was found to be remarkably large, nearly as 

 big as the cranium ; and the stomach, though distended with food, 

 uncommoi\ly small, not exceeding the globe of the eye, and scarcely 

 more than one-sixth part as large as the heart ; the fibres of the last 



* Ilist. de la Nov. France, III., p. 185. 



