The Ruby-throat's Caterers 



vivid advertisement to 

 attract his eye when he 

 is flashing about through the 

 sunshine in search ot tood. 

 Some one once asked 

 Eugene Field what was his 

 favourite colour. *' Whv, I 

 like any colour at all, so long 

 as it's red," he replied — an 

 answer which the rubv- 

 throat made to the flowers ages ago. It will be 

 noticed that the blossoms which the bird monopo- 

 lizes are either red or orange : possibly the latter 

 please him for the sake of the red that was mixed 

 with the yellow wdien their corollas were painted. 

 Such flowers as cater to insects must provide a 

 landing place, a lip or flattened platform of some 

 kind ; but this the humming-bird, which 

 sucks with his wings in motion, of 

 course does not require. Nor does per- 

 fume appeal to him. Pathfinders to 

 the nectary — little dark lines or 

 patches of bright colour on the 

 petals such as the bee likes to see 

 on his flowers — the humming- 

 bird may ignore. But he does 

 demand that his red or orange 

 flowers shall hide away their 

 nectar in deep tubes, where the mob 

 cannot drain them and where even his 

 most threatening rivals, the larger bumble- 

 bees, moths and butterflies, will find it difficult to 

 extract. From the tip of his needle-like bill his 



27 



