Hummingbirds 



Louis Agassiz Fuerti.s 



Ithaca, New York 



Once when I was a liule hoy, playing in an orchard, I was sud- 

 denly startled by a loud velvety buzzing sound that came in 

 "waves," accompanied by a faint but angry chippering. It made 

 me feel very queer and spine-chilly, because I could see nothing, 

 yet the sound was quite near. Finally though I saw the cause of 



the scrange noise, — a worried 

 little hummingbird was swinging 

 back and forth on buzzing wings 

 like an angry little pendulum, and 

 shrilly squeaking at me to go away. 

 By one of those rare chances 

 just then my eye fell upon a Httle 

 greenish lump on a drooping branch 

 of the apple tree, and guessing 

 what the fuss was all abouc I 

 drew the branch down until I 

 could see. Sure enough, it was 

 che hummingbird's nest, a tiny 

 cup of dandelion down and fern 

 "felt", covered with cobweb and 

 green scale-moss, only an inch and a half across and just big 

 enough inside to hold two tiny rather long, white eggs. 



Since then I have had many chances to watch hummingbirds all 

 the way from Alaska to South America, and I have always been 

 thrilled by their tiny size and great courage as much as by their 

 indescribable beauty. 



East of the Mississippi there is only one kind, the ruby-throated. 

 From Texas to California there are about half a dozen, and the 

 little rufous hummingbird goes all the way up to Alaska. 



The male ruby-throat has the whole throat covered with polished 

 scale-like feathers of a most lustrous and intense ruby-red which in 

 different angles of light changes from orange to nearly purple. 

 It is hard to imagine so tiny a creature — really little larger than a 

 good sized insecc — spending his summer in our eascern states and 

 Canada, flying in the fall all the way to Cencral America where it 



181 



Nest of the Ruby-Throat 



Hummingbird 



Covered with lichens 



