BIRD-POLLINATED PLANTS 15 
Fritz Miiller writes to F. Ludwig with regard to humming-birds and other 
species as agents of pollination (Bot. Centralbl., Ixxi, 1897, pp. 301, 302), to the 
following effect—‘Humming-birds, ‘which constitute one of the most important 
groups of pollinators, are on -the wing in Brazil throughout the year. Their 
activity in visiting flowers is far greater than would appear from accounts known 
to me. I could almost believe that the list of flowers not visited by them would 
be considerably smaller than a list of those that are visited. Even quite inconspicuous 
flowers, such as those of the small Composite—Buddleia brasiliensis—and the little 
green blossoms of Hohenbergia angusta, are visited by them. In the winter months, 
when butterflies and bees are very rare (except the social species of Melipona and 
Trigona), these birds are almost the only flower-visitors. Frequently (like the 
largest of our bees, a Xylocopa) they steal the nectar by boring, e.g. in Abutilon 
and the beautiful Jacaranda (digitaliflora ?).’ 
The flower-visiting humming-birds are often so like the hawk-moths, which 
seek out the same flowers, 
as to be mistaken for them: 
‘Several times,’ says Bates 
(‘ The Naturalist on the River 
Amazon, London, ed. 1892, 
p- 94), ‘I shot by mistake a 
humming-bird hawk-moth in- 
stead of a bird. This moth 
(Macroglossa Titan) is some- 
what smaller than humming- 
birds generally are; but its 
manner of flight, and the ey Fic. 11. Humming-Bird and Humming-bird Hawk-moth 
it poises itself before a flower, (Herm. Muller, after Bates.) 
whilst probing it with its pro- 
boscis, are precisely like the same actions of humming-birds. It was only after 
sia days’ experience that I learnt to distinguish one from the other when on the 
wing’ (cf. Fig. 11). 
Fritz Miiller made the same observation in Brazil. He wrote as follows to his 
' brother Hermann: ‘A large bush of a beautiful sky-blue Salvia, that occurs here, 
and which is now blooming in my garden, is visited by a Macroglossa, which has 
such a deceptive likeness to a humming-bird in form, colour, and mode of flight, that 
my little ones described it to me as a remarkable six-legged humming-bird.’ 
The only humming-bird that occurs in North America’ is Trochilus colubris, 
which is best known as the pollinator of Impatiens fulva. According to Asa Gray, 
Beal, Robertson, and Trelease, it also pollinates many other flowers, such as Tecoma 
radicans, Hibiscus lasiocarpus, Lobelia cardinalis, Gossypium herbaceum, Fuchsia, 
Bignonia, Passiflora incarnata, Aesculus parviflora, and others, as well as acclimatized 
European species, such as Scrophularia nodosa, Trifolium pratense, and Oenothera 
' [This statement is incorrect. Newton (‘A Dictionary of Birds,’ ed. 1899) states (p. 448), 
“In the north-west Se/atophorus rufus in summer visits the ribes-blossoms of Sitka.’ And again 
(p. 450), ‘ Seventeen species have been enrolled in the fauna of the United States. . ”—TR.] 
