364 



THE HUMMINGBIRD. 



ing and humming over the flowers in the dusky twilight, 

 than like a bird, appears this delicate fairy-like beauty. 

 How the bright green of the body gleams and glistens in 



THE HUMMINGBIRD. 



the sunlight; while the ruby-colored throat, changing with 

 the angle of light as the bird moves, is like a bit of black 

 velvet above the white under parts, or it glows and shimmers 

 like a flame. Each imperceptible stroke of those tiny wings 

 conforms to the mechanical laws of flight, in all their 

 subtle complications, with an ease and gracefulness that seems 

 spiritual. Who can fail to note that fine adjustment of the 

 organs of flight to aerial elasticity and gravitation, by which 

 that astonishing bit of nervous energy can rise and fall 

 almost on the perpendicular, dart from side to side, as if by 

 magic, or, assuming the horizontal position, pass out of 

 sight like a shooting star ? Is it not impossible, to con- 

 ceive of all this being done by that rational calculation 



