138 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 61. 



down, their wings a blurry film on either side, and their voices 

 squeaking defiance as they faced each other and i:ose, sometimes, to 

 tlie height of the tree tops, and once we watched a couple pass com- 

 pletely out of sight over our heads. Then, as if hy common consent 

 they would drop to earth again, and seek different parts of the weed. 

 This was repeated over and over again and sometimes by the same 

 individuals. Each time there was the same angry dash, the same cross 

 recrimination and the same mutual retreat. Sometimes there would 

 be several such balanced couples in the air at one time, and we saw 

 the action repeated many times in a few minutes. They quarreled 

 interminably, and whenever two met, whether they soared or not, 

 there was a furious succession of little squeaks, blending together 

 into a sort of little song, something like this, — "tsc tsc tsc tsc tsc fsc 

 tsG tsc Isc." The groups of squeaks ran into each other so that it 

 sounded almost like a sustained note and, as the groups varied a lit- 

 tle in pitch, it made a not unpleasant suggestion of a song. 



All these birds were juveniles. Swales noted but one with the 

 ruby throat, and Taverner one with but a single metallic feather set 

 like a gem in its gorget 



The succeeding May we had another interesting experience with a 

 Hummingbird that was much aggrieved at our presence at his par- 

 ticular spot. He flew towards us, scolding with vigor, his ruby 

 throat gleaming in the sun. When but a few feet away, and directly 

 facing us, it paused, and swTing back and forth across our path, 

 along an arc of a circle as if swung on the arm of a long invisible 

 pendulum. The amplitude of the swing was about twenty feet and 

 each beat was regularly timed and seemed to be beating seconds. For 

 about half a minute he kept it up and then dashed away and disap 

 pea red over the bush tops. 



The last of August and the first of September, 1907, saw no such 

 numbers of Hummers as described above. The early migrants were 

 late in starting this season, and it was not until September 23, the 

 last day of our stay, that there was any indication of numbers of 

 migrants. Up to then we had seen but one or two each day, run- 

 ning up to five August 27. The last day, however, in the early morn 

 ing, fifty were observed. There were no such growths of jewel weed 

 as were seen the fall before, even in the places where it then grev>' 

 so luxuriantly, and but little patches of it here and there reminded 

 us of last year's glories. What Hummers we did see were about these , 

 little clumps. 



Keays noted that in 1901 the Hummingbird was the only species 

 that did not turn back when, in migrating out the Point, it reached 

 the end. We verified this many times. The final end of the Point 

 stretches out for a couple of hundred rods, in the form of a long. low. 

 more or less winding and attenuated sand spit. Stationed about half 



