3f)'2 BIRDS OF n^LINOIS. 



Has. Eastern North Amerira, north tosr In the interior: in wintcr.Cuba.BahamaH, 

 eastern Mexico, and Central America, south to Veraffua; also Bermudas. 



"Sp. Char. Tail In the mole deeply forked; the feathers all narrow lanooolatc-acute. 

 In the female slightly rounded and emurKinnte; the feathers broader, thoueh pointed. 

 Male, uniform metallic (rroon above ; n ruby-red gorget (blaoklsh near the bill); with no 

 conspicuous rulT; a white collar on the jugulum; sides of body Kreunlsh: tall-feathers 

 uniformly brownish violet, female, without the red on the throat; the tail rounded and 

 emarKlualc. the inner feathers shorter than the outer; the tiUl-feathers banded with 

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

 Length, 3. 2S; wing,!. GO: tall, 1.25. I'ouiii; mules are like the females; the throat usually 

 spotted, sometimes with red; the toil is, in shape, more like that of the old male." {Vint. 

 y.Am. B.) 



Little need be said as to the habits of the well-known Huniining- 

 bird. Its distribution is general over every portion of the State — or 

 indeed over every portion of the continent from the Great Plains 

 to the Atlantic coast and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. 

 Arriving among us when spring has fairly come, and departing 

 just before the lirst autumnal frosts, these httle birds traverse a 

 distance in their migrations that appears almost impossible to 

 creatures so minute, many individuals making their winter homes 

 as far south as Yeragua, in the State of New Granada, immediate- 

 ly north of the Isthmus of Panama. 



When captured, the Hummingbird becomes in a short time so 

 tame as to sit confidingly on one's finger and sip synip (best made 

 of white sugar dissolved in warm water) from a saucer, but on ac- 

 count of its dehcate organization and susceptibility to cold, attempts 

 to keep it in confinement during winter have failed. The late Mr. 

 .John Gould, author and publisher of the most magnificently illus- 

 trated bird-books ever produced — probably the fuiest of them being 

 a monogi'aph of the Hummingbird — succeeded in taking several 

 specimens across the Atlantic to England ; but they died almost 

 immediately after theii- anuval in that country. 



