HUMMING-BIRDS 319 



the flowers seriatim, but skip about from one part of the tree 

 to another in the most capricious way. Mr. Belt remarks on 

 the excessive rapidity of the flight of the humming-bird giving 

 it a sense of security from danger, so that it will approach a 

 person nearer than any other bird, often hovering within two 

 or three yards (or even one or two feet) of one's face. He 

 watched them bathing in a small pool in the forest, hovering 

 over the water, turning from side to side by quick jerks of 

 the tail ; now showing a throat of gleaming emerald, now 

 shoulders of glistening amethyst; then darting beneath the 

 water, and rising instantly, throw off a shower of spray from 

 its quivering wings, and again fly up to an overhanging 

 bough and commence to preen its feathers. All humming- 

 birds bathe on the wing, and generally take three or four 

 dips, hovering between times about three or four inches 

 above the surface. Mr. Belt also remarks on the immense 

 numbers of humming-birds in the forests, and the great 

 difficulty of seeing them ; and his conclusion is, that in the 

 part of Nicaragua where he was living they equalled in 

 number all the rest of the birds together, if they did not 

 greatly exceed them. 



The extreme pugnacity of humming-birds has been noticed 

 by all observers. Mr. Gosse describes two meeting and 

 chasing each other through the labyrinths of twigs and 

 flowers till, an opportunity occurring, the one would dart 

 with seeming fury upon the other, and then, with a loud 

 rustling of their wings, they would twirl together, round and 

 round, till they nearly came to the earth. Then they parted, 

 and after a time another tussle took place. Two of the same 

 species can hardly meet without an encounter, while in many 

 cases distinct species attack each other with equal fury. Mr. 

 Salvin describes the splendid Eugenes fulgens attacking two 

 other species with as much ferocity as its own fellows. 

 One will knock another off its perch, and the two will 

 go fighting and screaming away at a pace hardly to be 

 followed by the eye. Audubon says they attack any other 

 birds that approach them, and think nothing of assaulting 

 tyrant -shrikes and even birds of prey that come too near 

 their home. 



