198 JUNGLE PEACE 



among the stamens, now dashing off at a tan- 

 gent, squeaking or chattering their loudest. 

 The magnitude of the total sound made by 

 these feathered atoms was astounding; piercing 

 squeaks, shrill insect-like tones, and now and 

 then a real song, diminutive trills and warbles 

 as if from a flock of song birds a long distance 

 away. Combats and encounters were frequent, 

 some mere sparring bouts, while, when two 

 would go at it in earnest, their humming and 

 squeaks and throb of wings were audible above 

 the general noise. 



This being an effect, I looked for the cause. 

 The massed cerise bloom gave forth compara- 

 tively little perfume, but at the base of each 

 flower, hidden and protected by the twenty score 

 densely ranked stamens, was a cup of honey; 

 not a nectary with one or two delicately dis- 

 tilled drops, but a good thimbleful, a veritable 

 stein of liquor. No creature without a long 

 proboscis or bill could penetrate the chevaux- 

 de-frise of stamens, and to reach the honey the 

 hummingbirds had to probe to their eyes. They 

 came out with forehead well dusted with pollen 

 and carried it to the next blossom. The des- 

 tiny of the flower was now fulfilled, the pot of 



