6o TROCHILID^ : HUMMING-BIRDS. 



Then again, many and long are the tournaments between 

 rival males inflamed with jealousy and passion, while the 

 little bodies for whom the war is waged amuse themi- 

 selves demurely with sunbeams and flowers. 



Though New England is far from the lands where 

 Trochilidoe are assembled in endless variety and beauty, 

 the single species which visits us is so common, that it 

 is no remarkable thing to see a perfect galaxy " starring" 

 on some flowery stage, attracted by the sweets which 

 the nectaries of the blossoms distil, the same that make 

 myriads of minute insects flock to a dainty feast. Poised 

 on wings so rapidly whirred that they leave to the eye 

 but a filmy outline, and make the bird seem suspended 

 in the air by invisible spirit-power, the Hummer explores 

 the heart of the flower ; now spearing his insect prey 

 with his sharp slender beak ; now sucking the sweets 

 through his tubular tongue, curiously fashioned into a 

 sort of syphon. Darting from one flower to another too 

 rapidly for the eye to follow the movements, — and with 

 the humming sound which has given the whole tribe a 

 name, — Colubris repeats the probing process till his 

 hunger is satisfied, and then repairs to some favorite 

 perch, near which probably the nest is placed. This, as 

 many writers have remarked of late with less originality 

 than appreciation, is one of the most beautiful objects 

 in nature. "What enlightened person," indeed, "can 

 gaze upon this nest without regretting that man should 

 in the progress of civilization so often forget Nature, 

 fail to appreciate her, or even wrong her.-*" The fabric 

 is placed upon a bough large enough for it to rest 

 securely, or in the forking of a twig — oftenest upon 

 some such horizontal support, but sometimes fastened to 

 the side of more upright growths. The cavity only about 



