334 THE RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. 
No. 145. 
RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. 
‘A. O. U. No. 428. Trochilus colubris Linn. 
Description.—Adult male: Above shining bronzy green,—rear aspect 
golden-green; wing-quills fuscous with faint purplish reflections; tail (two 
thirds concealed by green coverts), dark, metallic violet or purplish, forked, and 
with emarginate feathers; gorget shining metallic crimson; chin dull, velvety 
black; throat, below gorget, whitish; remaining lower parts heavily tinged with 
dusky and overlaid with metallic green, save on flanks, which are cottony-whitish ; 
bill slender, straight, and uniformly rounded. Adult female: Similar but with- 
out gorget ; throat white, specked with dusky ; tail double rounded, feathers rapidly 
tapering near tip. Jmmature male: Like adult female, but tail forked. Jmma- 
ture female: Like adult, but throat not specked with dusky. Adult male, length 
.25-3.60 (82.6-91.4) ; wing 1.53 (38.9) ; tail 1.08 (27.4) ; bill .63 (16.). Female 
a little larger. 
Recognition Marks.—Size least among Ohio birds. 
Nest, of plant-down, bound together by vegetable-fbers, and decorated ex- 
ternally with lichens; a tiny cup saddled upon a horizontal or descending limb, 
usually at considerable heights. Eggs, 2, pure white. Av. size, .51 x .34 
(EBs Se HO) 
General Range.—E astern North America to the Plains, north to the Fur 
Countries, breeding from Florida to Labrador; and south in winter to Cuba, 
Mexico and Veragua. 
Range in Ohio.—Common summer resident. 
THOSE of us, who as children were taught to call lady-bugs “lady-birds,” 
might have been pardoned some uncertainty as to the whereabouts of the divid- 
ing line between insects and birds, especially if, to the vision of the “Hum- 
bird’s” wings shimmering by day above the flower bed, was added the twilight 
visits of the hawk-moths not a whit smaller. The Hummer is painted like a 
butterfly ; its flight is direct and buzzing like a bee’s; it seeks its food at the 
flower’s brim by poising on rapidly vibrating wing like the hawk-moth; but 
there the resemblances cease. For the rest it is a bird, migrating, mating, and 
nesting quite like grown folks. 
It is a matter of no little wonder that of the five hundred species of Hum- 
mingbirds known to science and confined to the New World, only one should 
have penetrated the region east of the Mississippi River, there to enjoy a 
range almost twice larger than that of any other species. How we came to 
be so nearly overlooked we may never know; but let us be thankful for one. 
Contrary to the popular belief the Hummer does not feed largely upon 
nectar, but inserts its needle-bill into the depths of flowers mainly for the pur- 
pose of capturing insects. This explains the otherwise puzzling habit the 
bird has of revisiting the same flower beds at frequent intervals. It is not to 
