344 HISTORY OP CALIFORNIA. 



pose they often make choice of the trunk of a decayed 

 apple or forest tree, at different heights from the 

 ground. When an accidental cavity is not conveniently 

 found, confident in the formidable means provided 

 them by nature, with no other aid than the bill, they 

 have been known to make a winding burrow through 

 a solid oak for fifteen inches in length. At this labor, 

 for the greater security and privacy, they continue till 

 late in the evening, and may be heard dealing blows 

 as loud and successive as if aided by the tools of the 

 carpenter. 



Mr. Farnham says that he saw but two species of 

 Humming Birds in California. One of these, the 

 Trochilus rufus, he describes as a delicate, splendid 

 little creature, less than the common species, and the 

 most perfect gem in nature. When glancing through 

 the trees it resembles the flash of a large ruby. 



The Northern Humming Bird (Trochilus colubris) 

 is the other kind noticed by Mr. Farnham. 



This wonderfully diminutive and brilliant bird, says 

 Nuttall, is the only one of an American genus, of more 

 than one hundred species, which ventures beyond the 

 limit of tropical climates. Its approaches towards the 

 north are regulated by the advances of the season. 

 Fed on the honeyed sweets of flowers, it is an exclusive 

 attendant on the varied bounties of Flora. By the 

 10th to the 20th of March, it is already seen in the 

 mild forests of Louisiana, and the warmer maritime 

 districts of Georgia, where the embowering and fra- 

 grant Gelsemium (Carolina Jessamine), the twin- 

 leaved Bignonia, and the white-robed Myhcarium, 

 with a host of daily expanding flowers, invite our little 

 sylvan guest to the retreats he had reluctantly for- 

 saken. Desultory in his movements, roving only 



