THE ANNANS HUMMINGBIRD. 



\Calypte anna.) 



Buffon. writing of the Humming- 

 bird, and his words do not refer to any 

 single species, but to them as a group, 

 savs that '"the emerald, the ruby and the 

 topaz ghtter in its garb, which is never 

 soiled with the dust of earth, for. lead- 

 ing an aerial life, it rarely touches the 

 turf, even for an instant. Always in the 

 air, flying from flower to flower, it shares 

 their freshness and their splendor, lives 

 on their nectar and only inhabits those 

 climates in which they are unceasingly 

 renewed." 



Of all the birds that might receive the 

 appellation, "The Bird of -\merica," to 

 none could it be applied more truthfully 

 than to the Hummingbird. For of all 

 the families of birds that are distinctively 

 peculiar to the Americas the Trochilidae. 

 or the Hummingbird family, contains 

 the larger number of species. There are 

 over five hundred species inhabitmg 

 North and South America and the ad- 

 jacent islands, from Patagonia on the 

 South to Alaska on the North. The spe- 

 cies is more numerous in the tropics and 

 but seventeen are known to frequent the 

 United States. Of these only one. the 

 ruby-throated hummingbird, exhibits 

 its beauty east of the Mississippi River, 

 and but seven species have their breeding 

 range chiefly or entirely within the 

 United States. 



"They abound most in mountainous 

 countries, where the configuration of the 

 surface and productions of the soil are 

 most diversified within small areas. Their 

 center of abundance is among the North- 

 em Andes, between the parallels of ten 

 degrees north and south of the equator, 

 from which region they gradually di- 

 minish in numbers both to the northward 

 and southward, but much more rapidly 

 toward the extensive lowlands of the 

 eastern portion of the continent." 



A very interesting group, nol so gem- 

 like as many of their sister species, is the 

 hermit hummers represented by a num- 

 ber of species that chiefly inhabit Brazil. 

 These hummingbirds are notable for 

 their plain colors, their plumage havmg 

 but little of the lustrous metallic irides- 

 cence which is so marked a characteristic 

 of the species with which we are more 

 familiar and which frequent flowers in 

 the bright sunshine. The laws of Nature 

 seem to provide against excess even in 

 coloration. The hermit himimers obtain 

 their food only from the insect world, 

 feeding upon those species found on 

 the leaves of trees in deep forests. In 

 such a home a gorgeous dress would bt 

 out of place and needless. 



Regarding their actions, Mr. Robert 

 Ridgway says : "'Hummingbirds are so 

 distinct from other birds in their exter- 

 nal structures and manner of flight that 

 they present in every respect, except 

 when at rest, an appearance entirely pe- 

 culiar to themselves. They spend perhaps 

 the greater part of their time upon the 

 wing, usually hovering or balancing 

 themselves before a flower from which 

 they are procuring their sustenance of 

 honey or of minute insects. At such time 

 the body is nearly vertical or inclined at 

 a slight angle, the head bent nearly at 

 right angles with the axis of the body, 

 the wings spread nearly at right angles 

 with the same axis." The motion of the 

 wings, which is ahvays rapid, may carry 

 the bird in a horizontal direction or poise 

 it in its vertical attitude directly over a 

 flower. In this latter position the motion 

 of the wings is so rapid that a mere haze 

 appears on each side of the bird's body. 

 Mr. Gould, speaking of their flight, says 

 "The bird does not usually glide through 

 the air with the quick, darting flight of a 

 swallow or swift, but continues trem- 



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