TROCHILID.E — THE HUMMING-BIRDS. 449 



skins ; others, however, are not distinguishable from the northern speci- 

 mens. 



Habits. This species is found throughout eastern North America, as far 

 west as the Missouri Valley, and breeds from Florida and the valley of the 

 Kio Grande to high northern latitudes. Richardson states that it ranges at 

 least to the 57th parallel, and probably even farther north. He obtained 

 specimens on the plains of the Saskatchewan, and Mr. Drummond found 

 one of its nests near the source of the Elk Eiver. Mr. Dresser found this 

 bird breeding in Southwestern Texas, and also resi||^it there during the 

 winter months, and I have received their nests and eggs from Florida and 

 Georgia. It was found by Mr. Skinner to be abundant in Guatemala during 

 the winter months, on the southern slope of the great Cordillera, showing 

 that it chooses for its winter retreat the moderate climate afforded by a re- 

 gion lying between the elevations of three and four thousand feet, where 

 it winters in large numbers. Mr. Salvin noted their first arrival in 

 Guatemala as early as the 24th of August. From that date the number 

 rapidly increased until the first week in October, when it had become by 

 far the most common species about Duefias. It seemed also to be univer- 

 sally distributed, being equally common at Coban, at San Geronimo, and the 

 plains of Salama. 



The birds of this species make their appearance on our southern border 

 late in March, and slowly move northward in their migrations, reaching 

 Upper Georgia about the 10th of April, Pennsylvania from the last of 

 April to about the middle of May, and farther north the last of May or the 

 first of June. They nest in Massachusetts about the 10th of June, and are 

 about thirteen days between the full number of eggs and the appearance of 

 the young. They resent any approach to their nest, and will even make 

 angry movements around the head of the intruder, uttering a sharp outcry. 

 Other than this I have never heard them utter any note. 



Attempts to keep in confinement the Humming-Bird have been only par- 

 tially successful. They have been known to live, at the best, only a few 

 months, and soon perish, partly from imperfect nourishment and unsuita- 

 ble food, and probably also from insufficient warmth. 



Numerous examinations of stomachs of these birds, taken in a natural 

 state, demonstrate that minute insects constitute a very large proportion of 

 their necessary food. These are swallowed whole. The young birds feed 

 by putting their own bills down the throats of their parents, sucking proba- 

 bly a prepared sustenance of nectar and fragments of insects. They raise, 

 I think, but one brood in a season. The young soon learn to take care of 

 themselves, and appear to remain some time after their parents have left. 

 They leave New England in September, and have all passed southward be- 

 yond our limits by November. 



A nest of this bird, from Dr. Gerhardt, of Georgia, measures 1.75 inches 

 in its external diameter and 1.50 in height. Its cavity measures 1.00 



VOL. II. 57 



