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. Immature male : Like adult female, but tail forked. Imma- 

 ture female : Like adult, but throat not specked with dusky. Adult male, length 

 3.25-3.60 (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-fibers, 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 

 (13. x 8.6). 



General Range. Eastern 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 



