Two Problems in Identification 285 



in this section of the country, but on June 4, this season, I was watching a 

 Baltimore Oriole on the top of a small dead dogwood tree, when suddenly 

 a black Hummingbird, with a brilliant orange collar, came out of nowhere and 

 perched on the tip top of a slender stem of the same tree. Since that date I 

 have seen it more than fifty times and taken many acquaintances with me to 

 see the exquisite little beauty, for it very rarely fails to appear within a few 

 moments after I reach my post of observation, always perching on the same 

 spot where I first discovered it, though several times its curiosity has led it 

 to dart for a moment to a telephone ware and look me over at a distance 

 of only a few feet. Sometimes it has darted up into a tulip tree and sipped 

 among the blossoms there; once or twice I have seen it poising among honey- 

 suckle blossoms. Yesterday two black Hummingbirds, one with orange collar 

 not noticeable, supposedly the mate, were seen among the blossoms of a trum- 

 pet vine. 



The bird is as tiny as the ordinary Hummingbird. The collar is narrow 

 and does not meet in front. The breast seems a dark gray or slate color. Its 

 bill is very black, long and slender. Altogether the little creature is a fasci- 

 nating puzzle to me. Its friendliness, its look of elfish intelligence when perch- 

 ing, its willingness to be "called out" to its perch many times a day to be ad- 

 mired as it poses and prinks and preens, its unusual habit of frequent perching, 

 its long sojourn, are all mystifying to me. I have so far failed to find the nest, 

 which I supposed at first must account for the perching as if on sentinel duty, 

 but it has been here now a month and five days and I don't know how much 

 longer before I found it. 



Any information about this mysterious little guest from the tropics would 

 be greatly appreciated by me. 



T, Ti T .Walters Park, Pa., July 16, 1912. 



Editor of Bird-Lore. ^ ^ j j ■> ^ 



Dear Sir: Your letter in regard to my "black Hummingbird"' just received. 

 My observation of the Hummers has been for the most part "on the wing," 

 and I did not know their tendency to haunt favorite perches for such long 

 periods. Thank you for this information. 



A day or two after I wrote you, the little Hummer in question finally 

 revealed his true identity, a Ruby-throat, as you surmised. Though knowing 

 as I do the tendency of a bird's coloring to vary in different lights, "my pet 

 Hummingbird" deceived me completely. Black he certainly appears when 

 perching, and black a score or more of my acquaintances have also pronounced 

 him while lesiurely observing him at only a few feet distance. 



But one day he poised before a near-by trumpet flower at just the right 

 angle for the sunlight to fall directly upon his back, and suddenly he became 

 a brilliant green. As he turned to fly away the unmistakable ruby gleamed 

 from his throat. A moment later he was again perching quite near me, again 

 transformed into an elfish little black creature, — but his secret was mine at last. 



