HUMMING-BIRDS. 



341 



cality, some being spread over a vast range of country, while others 

 are confined within the limits of a narrow belt of earth hardly more 

 than a few hundred yards in width, and some refuse to roam beyond 

 the narrow precincts of a single mountain. Some of these birds are 

 furnished with comparatively short and feeble wings, and, in conse- 

 quence, are obliged to remain in the same land throughout the year, 

 while others are strong of flight and migrate over numerous tracts of 

 country. They gather most thickly in Mexico and about the equator, 

 the number of species diminishing rapidly as they recede from the equa- 

 torial line. 



The name of Humming-birds is given to them on account of the 

 humming or buzzing sound which they produce with their wings, es- 

 pecially while they are hovering in their curious fiishion over a 

 tempting blossom, and feeding on its contents while suspended in the 

 air. 



The legs of these birds are remarkably weak and delicate, and the 

 wings are proportionately strong — a combination which shows that the 

 creatures are intended to pass more of 

 their time in the air than on foot. Even 

 when feeding they very seldom trouble 

 themselves to perch, but suspend them- 

 selves in the air before the flower on 

 which they desire to operate, and with 

 their long slender tongues are able to 

 feed at ease without alighting. In the 

 skeleton — especially in the shape of the 

 breast-bone and wings, as well as in the 

 comparatively small size of the feet — 

 the Humming-birds bear some analogy to the swifts, and, like those 

 birds, never lay more than two eggs. 



The flight of these birds is inconceivably rapid — so rapid, indeed, 

 that the eye cannot follow it when the full speed is put forth ; and 

 with such wonderful rapidity do the little sharp-cut wings beat the air 

 that their form is quite lost, and while the bird is hovering near a sin- 

 gle spot the wings look like two filmy gray fans attached to the sides. 

 While darting from one flower to another the bird can hardly be seen 

 at all, and it seems to come suddenly into existence at some spot, and 

 as suddenly to vanish from sight. Some Humming-birds are fond of 

 towering to a great height in the air, and descending from thence to 

 their nests or to feed, while others keep near the ground, and are sel- 

 dom seen at an elevation of many yards. 



The food of the Humming-bird is much the same as that of the 

 honey-suckers, except, perhaps, that they consume more honey and 

 fewer flies. Still, they are extremely fond of small insects, and if 



29* 



HUMMING-BIRDS. 



