THE RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. 



{Trochiius colubris.') 



Voyager on golden air, 



Type of all that's fleet and fair, 



Incarnate gem, 



Live diadem, , 



Bird-beam of the summer day, — 



Whither on your sunny way? 



— John Vance Cheney, "To a Humming-bird.' 



Regarding the Ruby-throated Hum- 

 mingbird, Mr. Wilson has said: "Na- 

 ture, in every department of her work, 

 seems to dehght in variety, and the pres- 

 ent subject of our history is almost as 

 singular for its minuteness, beauty, want 

 of song, and manner of feeding, as the 

 mockingbird is for unrivalled excellence 

 of notes, and plainness of plumage." 

 One of the most interesting facts regard- 

 ing these, the tiniest and most exquisite 

 of our birds, is that they are the only 

 ones of a large family (for there are 

 about live hundred known species of 

 Hummingbirds) which pass through the 

 United States east of the Mississippi 

 River, and finally on to the Fur. Coun- 

 tries and Labrador. They may be seen 

 as far westward as the Great Plains, and 

 they winter to some extent in the south- 

 ern portions of Florida, but the majority 

 pass to the West Indies and through 

 eastern Mexico into Central America. 

 Of the many species of the Humming- 

 bird family only seventeen have been ob- 

 served within the borders of the United 

 States, and of these only seven species 

 really belong to our country, for they 

 are the only ones whose breeding ranges 

 lie chiefly or entirely within our limits. 

 The other ten species are only visitors 

 within our borders. 



The names of few birds are found 

 more extensively in literature. The se- 

 date naturalists as well as the poets and 

 others have been inspired to write elo- 

 quently regarding these little birds. Buf- 

 fon, Audubon, Wilson, John Gould, 



Coues, Ridgway and many other orni- 

 thologists have glowingly expressed 

 their admiration of the beauty and in- 

 teresting habits of the Hummingbirds. 

 Audubon speaks of the Hummingbird as 

 a "glittering fragment of the rainbow," 

 and says : "Who, on seeing this lovely 

 creature moving on humming winglets 

 through the air, suspended as if by magic 

 in it, flitting from one flower to another, 

 with motions as graceful as they are 

 light and airy, pursuing its course and 

 yielding new delights wherever it is seen 

 * * * would not pause, admire, and 

 turn his mind with reverence toward the 

 Almighty Creator, the wonders of whose 

 hand we at every step discover, and of 

 whose sublime conception we everywhere 

 observe the manipulations in his admira- 

 ble system of creation." Beautiful are 

 the lines of Ednah Proctor Clarke : 



Dancer of air, 

 Flashing thy flight across the noontide hour, 

 To pierce and pass ere it is full aware 



Each wondering flower ! 



The grave thrush sings 

 His love-call, and the nightingale's romance 

 Throbs through the twilight; thou hast but 

 thy wings, 



Thy sun-thrilled dance 



Yet doth love's glow 

 Burn in the ruby of thy restless throat, 

 Guiding thy voiceless ecstacy to know 



The richest note. 



Oh brooding thrush ! 

 Now for thy joy the emptied air doth long; 

 Thine is the nested silence, and the hush 



That needs no song. 



