i8o BIRDS OF AMERICA 



Inhabitants exclusively of America, the Hummingbirds constitute not only the most 

 charming element in the wonderfully varied bird-life of the western hemisphere, but also, 

 without doubt, the most remarkable group of birds in the entire world. No other group 

 of birds is so brilliant in plumage or so different from all others in mode of flight and 

 manner of feeding. The general habits of Hummingbirds are not dissimilar to those of 

 birds in general. They are both aerial and arboreal, but are unable to progress upon the 

 ground or any flat surface by means of their legs and feet alone. They perch readily and 

 frequently upon trees or bushes, or may even cling to rocks or other vertical surfaces; and 

 their nest-building presents nothing that may be deemed peculiar or even specially character- 

 istic. In their flight and manner of procuring their food, however, they difl'er strikingly 

 from all other birds, in these respects closely resembling certain insects, especially the evening 

 hawk-moths. Their food, consisting mainly of small insects but in part also of the nectar 

 of flowers, is mostly gleaned from blossoms, before which they poise, with wings so rapidly 

 vibrating as to be invisible except as a dim haze or halo partly surrounding the body and 

 producing the humming sound from which these birds derive their vernacular name, the 

 bill thrust inside the flower, and the slender, semi-tubular tongue extended into the depths 

 of the blossom. vSome species, instead of feeding from flowers, glean their insect food from 

 the bark of forest trees, following along the branches in suspended flight in the same manner 

 that the others pass from flower to flower. In their feeding from flower to flower. Humming- 

 birds, like bees, butterflies, and moths, perform the same office in the economy of nature 

 as insects by transferring pollen from one bloom to another and thus assisting in the 

 fertihzation of plants. In flying from one point to another, the flight of Hummingbirds, 

 while essentially direct, is usually more or less undulating, and so extremely rapid that the 

 eye can scarcely follow. Often this flight is accompanied (at least in the case of males of 

 some species) by a more or less remarkable screeching or grating sound, produced mechanically 

 by some peculiaritj^ of wing-structure. 



Diminutiveness of size and metallic brilliancy of coloring are the chief external 

 characteristics of Hummingbirds, though exceptions to both occur; and in these respects 

 they, as a group, have no rivals. Unfortunately stuffed specimens convey but a faint idea 

 of their splendid coloring, for the perfection of their changeable refulgence can be fully 

 reaUzed only in the living bird, whose every change of position flashes to view a different 

 hue — emerald green replacing ruby red, sapphire blue succeeding fiery orange, or either 

 becoming opaque velvety black — according to the angle at which the sun's rays touch 

 the feathers, an effect which can only partially be imitated with the stuffed specimen by 

 artificially changing its position with reference to the Hght. Many species have a spot 

 on the forehead at the base of the bill of the most luminous or brilliantly metallic color (usually 

 green) that it is possible to imagine, this spot being surrounded by the most intense velvety 

 black — evidently to enhance the iDrilliancy of the ornament by contrast, just as a jeweler 

 would, for the same purpose, display a diamond or other gem against a background of 

 black velvet. Often there is a spot of brilUant color and one of a contrasting hue just below 

 it, the result being that first one color, then the other, is flashed forth as the bird changes 

 slightly its position. 



RIVOLI'S HUMMINGBIRD 

 Eugenes fulgens (Szvainson) 



A. O. U. Number 426 



Other Names.— Refulgent Tltimmingbird ; Rivoli's Color.— Adult Male: Crown, rich metallic violet 



Hummer. or royal purple, the forehead blackish, usually glossed 



General Description.— Length. 5 inches. Upper with green or bhiish-green ; hindneck, sides of head, 



parts, metallic green : under parts, black, green, and velvety-black or bronze-green, according to light : rest 



gray. of upper parts, metalHc bronze, bronze-green, or golden- 



