MAY. 



163 



F, — No, no : stay where you are, and remain quite still, 

 and talk in a low voice; for on the slightest alarm, and 

 their brilliant little eyes are glancing in every direction, they 

 shoot off with the straightness and speed of an arrow. See 

 how they hover on the wing, in front of the blossoms, quite 

 stationary, while their long tongue is inserted, but their 

 wings vibrating so rapidly as to be only visible as an indis- 

 tinct cloud on each side. 



C. — One of them has suddenly vanished, but I did not 

 see him fly, though I was watching him. 



F. — He has gone only about a yard : you may see him 

 stationary again to the right of where he was before. These 

 starts are so sudden and so rapid, that they are often lost to 

 the sight. 



C. — How very little and how very beautiful ! the body 

 glitters in the sun with green and gold, and the throat is 

 just like a glowing coal of fire. Now they rest on a twig ; 

 one of them I perceive has not the brilliant throat of the 

 other. 



F. — That is the female ; in other respects her plumage 

 is like that of the male. It is the Ruby-throated Humming- 

 bird (Trochilus Colubris), and is scattered over the whole 

 of this continent, at least to the latitude of 57 degrees 

 north. It is the only species of the genus found in North 

 America, except a species (T. RufusJ which inhabits the 

 coast of the Pacific, as far north as 61.° 



C. — Is it numerous here ? 



F. — Yes : in summer it is abundant ; frequenting our 

 gardens, for the tubular flowers, which it probes with its long 

 bill and tongue, sometimes hiding its head in the corolla, and 

 sucking with so much indiscretion as to be approached, and 

 taken in the hand. It is particularly fond of the deep crim- 

 son flowers of the sweet-smelling Balm (Monarda Kalmi- 

 ana), and will return to these after a few moments, even if 



