224 The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird 



the eggs were laid ; had the birds been hatched, the nest would have given 

 them but poor protection. The condition of this nest is apparently ex- 

 plained by two cases that I have watched in the garden, when, after the 

 young were hatched, the mother bird built up the nest about them as they 

 grew. 



The eggs of the Ruby-throat, and of all other kinds of Humming- 

 birds are only two, and are pure white. 



After the nesting season is over the males are seen again about the 

 flowers, though greatly outnumbered by Hummers lacking the ruby throat. 

 This, however, is easily accounted for by the fact that the young of 

 the year, both males and females, are plumed like the mother. 



One spectacle in the home life of the Ruby-throat is rather awful 

 until you fully understand the cause, and know that the mother is not 

 trying to choke her children to death. She feeds them by regurgitation ; 

 that is, she pumps the food, first softened in her own crop, down the 

 little throats by means of her own beak, which she 

 r thrusts into their gaping mouths. Early bird students 



saw this process the other way about, saying that 

 Hummers, Pigeons, etc., pushed their beak into their parents' crops for 

 food hence the term "sucking doves." 



In the Hummingbird we have a species that makes its appeal through 

 beauty of form and grace of flight, rather than through any economic 

 consideration. Beauty as an excuse for being has, however, long since 

 been accepted as a fact. And yet it was through beauty that, at one time, 

 this elusive little bird was almost doomed to extinction, for it is not 

 so many years ago when a wreath of Hummingbirds upon a festal hat 

 was not a rare sight. Public opinion, in the United States at least, 

 will no longer stand for such senseless waste and barbarity. Of no 

 use for food, a difficult prey for either cat or snake, the Ruby-throat 

 should escape most of the ills that befall our native birds, and continue 

 with us when larger birds grow rare. 



Unlike many birds of unique .plumage or tropical colors, the Hum- 

 mingbird family belongs entirely to the New World, and is most nu- 

 merous in the mountains of South America. Of the five hundred or 

 more known species, only eighteen reach the United States, and but few 

 of these pass far north of our Mexican boundary. 



Classification and Distribution 



The Ruby-throat belongs to the Order Macrochires, Suborder Trochili and 

 Family Trochilida-. Its scientific name is Archilochus colubris. It is found in 

 summer and breeds throughout the eastern United States from Florida to Mani- 

 toba, Quebec and Nova Scotia; and it winters in Mexico and Central America. 



This and other Educational Leaflets are for sale, at 5 cents each, by the National Association ci 

 Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway. New York City. Lists given on request. 



