RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD 213 



ney. I suggested that these swallows had origiually 

 built in hollow trees, but it would be interesting to as- 

 certain whether they constructed their nests in the same 

 way and of the same material then. 



\_Seealso under General and Miscellaneous, p. 419.] 



RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD 



May 17, 1856. Meanwhile I hear a loud hum and 

 see a splendid male hummingbird coming zigzag in long 

 tacks, like a bee, but far swifter, along the edge of the 

 swamp, in hot haste. He turns aside to taste the honey 

 of the Andromeda calyculata ^ (already visited by bees) 

 within a rod of me. This golden-green gem. Its bur- 

 nished b^ck looks as if covered with green scales dusted 

 with gold. It hovers, as it were stationary in the air, 

 with an intense humming before each little flower-bell of 

 the humble Andromeda calyculata^ and inserts its long 

 tongue in each, turning toward me that splendid ruby 

 on its breast, that glowing ruby. Even this is coal-black 

 in some lights ! There, along with me in the deep, wild 

 swamp, above the andromeda, amid the spruce. Its hum 

 was heard afar at first, like that of a large bee, bringing 

 a larger summer. This sight and sound would make me 

 think I was in the tropics, — in Demerara or Maracaibo. 



May 29, 1857. Soon I hear the low all-pervading 

 hum of an approaching hummingbird circling above 

 the rock, which afterward I mistake several times for 

 the gruff voices of men approaching, unlike as these 

 sounds are in some respects, and I perceive the resem- 



^ [The Cassandra, or leather-leaf, now known to botanists as •ChanuE- 

 daphne calyculata.^ 



