CHAPTER II 



THE RUBY-THROAT'S 

 CATERERS 



WHAT tempts the ruby-throated humming-bird 

 to travel every spring from Central America as far 

 north as the Arctic Circle, leaving behind him for 

 a season those tropical delights so dear to four hun- 

 dred or more stay-at-home relatives while he, the 

 sole representative of this charming New World 

 family found east of the Mississippi and north of 

 Florida, spends half his life among us in voluntary 

 exile ? How it stirs the imagination to picture the 

 solitary, tiny migrant, a mere atom of bird life, 

 moving above the range of human sight through 

 the vast dome of sky, " lone wandering but not 

 lost " ! Borne swiftly onward by rapidly vibrating 

 wings that measure barely two inches in length, he 

 covers the thousands of miles between his winter 

 home and his summer one by easy stages and arrives 

 at his chosen destination, weather permitting, at 

 approximately the same date year after year. Why 

 does he come North ? 



One of the enlarging ideas gained through the 

 study of Nature is that the same primal motives 

 govern the actions of plant, bird, beast and man 

 alike, that all sentient beings act intelligently 



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