HUMMING BIRDS. II 



galeritus, Mol) for the first time. This I remember as 

 one of the most remarkable epochs of my life. They were 

 plentiful and flying about in all directions, from one flower to 

 another, in search of food. When feeding, they introduce 

 their bills, and sometimes the best part of their heads, in the 

 calices of the flowers, and, during all the time, remain on the 

 wing (exactly as the moths of the genus Sphinx do in Europe, 

 on our flowers), and in a very short time extract the honey 

 and all the minute insects, on which they feed, emerging from 

 there with pollen, and even honey, on their foreheads. Not 

 one single flower escapes detection. They continue this 

 active exercise during the earlier hours of the morning, and 

 until late in the afternoon. When the days are cloudy, they 

 may be seen visiting flowers during all day ; but usually as 

 soon as the heat begins to be felt, they retire on their favourite 

 dry branches and rest there. Occasionally they are seen 

 starting with the rapidity of lightning in a straight direction 

 and returning a little while after. This means that an intruder, 

 often of the same species, has passed near by, and that it 

 started in pursuit. During the nuptial time, they are quite 

 warlike. They don t allow any other bird to approach their 

 nests. Many times I have watched these Liliputians battles. 

 During that time the humming-bird is fearless. If it fights 

 a larger bird, it makes good use of its sword-like pointed bill, 

 with which it inflicts such blows as it can on the head of the 

 intruder. When it is with another humming bird, the sight is 

 still more interesting. First, it starts straight at the intruder 

 provoking it to fight, then they both rise perpendicularly to 

 a great height where they are lost to sight, and in like 

 manner they descend with the utmost rapidity until nearing 

 the ground. This is repeated over and over again until the 

 sudden escape of the intruder. The male always sits near the 

 nest, and, in many species, sings during the incubation. It 

 sits sometimes on the nest. The nest, which is one of the 

 most admirable and delicate structures, scarcely larger than a 

 walnut, is made of moss, intermixed together, and the inside 

 filled up with vegetable silk, usually the produce of (Bombax 

 ceiba] cotton or suchlike. It always contains two white 

 eggs, scarcely larger than a large pea, but oval in form. The 

 incubation lasts about sixteen days. The young at birth is 

 entirely naked and helpless, hence its classification in the 

 division PsiLOPAEDES, Sundervall. A few days after birth, 

 minute quills begin to appear all over the body, from which 

 feathers grow little by little. On the twentieth day it is 

 well furnished with them, and a few days after, it is able to fly 



