544 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — PICARl.I^ — TROCHILI. 



The flying-apparatus, as in the Swifts, presents a very deep-keeled entire sternum, for 

 attachment of powerful pectoral muscles; a very short upper-arm, but the distal segments of 

 the fore limb lengthened, particularly the hand, bearing a long, thin-bladed, or even falcate 



\if 



Fig. 354. — Hummingbirds. (From Michelet.) 



wing ; primaries 10, the 1st usually 

 longest ; secondaries reduced to 6, and 

 very short. Tail of 10 rectrices, but 

 otherwise too variable to be character- 

 ized, presenting almost every pecu- 

 liarity in size and shape as a whole, in 

 size and shape of individual feathers, 

 and often difl'ering in form as well as 

 color in the opposite sexes of the same 

 species. Feet extremely small and 

 weak, unfit for progression, formed ex- 

 clusively for perching ; tarsi naked or 

 feathered. Hind toe incumbent, as in 

 Passerine birds. Claws all large, sharp 

 and curved. The bill exhibits the 

 tenuirostral type in perfection, being 

 long and extremely slender for its 

 length ; it is usually straight, subulate 

 or awl-shaped, or with lancet-shaped 

 tip; it is often decurved, sometimes 



recurved, and again bent almost at an angle ; in length it varies from less than the head to 

 more than all the rest of the bird. The cutting edges of the mandibles are inflected, and either 

 serrate, serrulate, or smooth ; the rictus is devoid of bristles. The nostrils are linear, with a 

 supercumbent scale or operculum, sometimes naked, oftener feathered. In size the Hummers 

 average the least of all birds, the giants among them alone reaching a length of 6 or 7 inches, 

 the pygmies being under 3 inches ; the usual stature is 3 or 4 inches. In a few the coloration 

 is plain, or even sombre; most have glittering iridescent tints — "the most gorgeously bril- 

 liant metallic hues known among created things." The sexes are usually unlike in color. 



Hummingbirds, like poets, belong to the genus irritahile ; they are very nervy if not also 

 brainy little creatures, of greater courage than discretion, quick-tempered and extremely pug- 

 nacious — the Kingbird which has just whipped a Hawk or a Crow maybe assaulted and 

 worsted by the impetuous Ruby-throat. The food of Hummers was formerly supposed to be 

 the sweets of flowers. It is now known that they are chiefly insectivorous. Their little nests 

 are models of architectural beauty. The eggs are always two in number, elliptical in shape, 

 and white in color. The young hatch weak and helpless, requiring to be fed by the parents, 

 Hummers being thus of altricial nature. The voice is not musical. 



The family is one of the most perfectly circumscribed in ornithology, and one of the largest 

 groups of its grade. So intimately and variously are the genera interrelated that every attempt 

 to divide it into subfamilies has proven unsatisfactory. Hummers are peculiar to America. 

 Species occur from Alaska to Patagonia ; but we have a mere sprinkling in this country. 

 The centre of abundance is in tropical South America, particularly Colombia. Nearly 500 

 speciniens are current. The genera or subgenera vary with authors from 50 to 150. Mr. D. 

 G. Elliot, one of the highest authorities upon the subject, gives 426 species, assigned to 125 

 genei'a. The latest monographer, Mr. Osbert Salvin, one of the most careful and critical 

 ornithologists who ever lived, arranges the Hummers in 3 series called Serrirostres, Inter- 

 medii, and Laevirostres, with 127 genera and 480 species. None of the known North Ameri- 

 can Hummers exhibits the extremes of shape of bill or tail which some of the tropical genera 



