860 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



until the webs are almost or completely gone, and then suddenly ex- 

 panded into a broad paddle-shaped tip. In Heliactin the tail is 

 lengthened and greatly graduated, being, in fact, shaped very much 

 as in the common Mourning Dove (Zenaidura carolinensis) or Wild 

 Pigeon (Ectopistes migratoria). But the most wonderful form of all 

 is to be seen in the Loddigesia mirabilis, in which two of the rectrices 

 consist of simple bare shafts which extend for some three inches be- 

 yond the tips of the coverts, and bear at their ends a broad leaf- 

 shaped paddle more than an inch in length and nearly as much in 

 breadth. Other genera have the rectrices needle-shaped, club-shaped, 

 etc., while the majority have the tail composed of feathers not remark- 

 able for any peculiarity of form. 



"The bill of the Hummingbird is awl-shaped or subulate ; thin, 

 and sharp-pointed ; straight or curved ; sometimes as long as the 

 head, sometimes much longer. The mandibles are excavated to the 

 tip for the lodgment of the tongue, and form a tube by the close 

 apposition of their cutting edges. There is no indication of stiff, 

 bristly feathers at the base of the mouth. The tongue has some 

 resemblance to that of the Woodpeckers in the elongation of the 

 cornua backwards, so as to pass around the back of the skull, and 

 then anteriorly to the base of the bill. The tongue itself is of very 

 peculiar structure, consisting anteriorly of two hollow threads closed 

 at the ends and united behind. The food of the Hummingbirds 

 consists almost entirely of insects, which are captured by protrud- 

 ing the tongue in flowers of various shapes without opening the bill 

 very wide." (Hist. N. Am. B.) 



The Hummingbirds, more than any other family, constitute the 

 most remarkable feature of the New World bird-life. They have 

 absolutely no representatives in any other part of the world, the 

 Swifts being the nearest relatives they have in other countries. 



Hummingbirds abound most in mountainous countries, where 

 the configuration of the surface and productions of the soil are 

 most diversified within small areas. Their centre of abundance is 

 among the northern Andes, between the parallels of 10, on each 

 side of the equator, from which region they gradually diminish 

 in numbers both to the northward and southward, but much more 

 rapidly toward the extensive lowlands of the eastern portion of the 

 continent. Their northern limit of abundance may be approx- 

 imately given as the Tropic of Cancer, beyond with but few of 

 forty-six or more Mexican species extend, while only thirteen 

 of them have been detected across the boundary line in the equally 



