470 HUMMING-BIRDS. 



Again, circling round and round, they rise high in mid-air, 

 and then dart off like light to some distant attraction. 

 Perched upon a little twig, they smooth their plumes, and 

 seem to delight in their dazzling hues ; then, starting off 

 leisurely, they skim along, stopping capriciously to kiss the 

 coquetting flowerets. Often two meet in mid-air and furiously 

 fight, their crests, and the feathers upon their throats, all 

 erected and blazing, and altogether pictures of the most 

 violent rage. Several times we saw them battling with large 

 black bees who frequent the same flowers, and may be seen 

 often to interfere provokingly. Like lightning our little heroes 

 would come down, but the coat of shining mail would ward 

 off their furious strokes. Again and again would they renew 

 the attack, until their anger had expended itself by its own 

 fury, or until the apathetic bee, once roused, had put forth 

 powers which drove the invaders from the field." 



Bates remarks, that he several times shot, by mistake, a 

 humming-bird hawk-moth, instead of a bird. This moth 

 (Macroglossa Titan) is smaller than humming-birds generally 

 are, but its manner of flight, and the way it poises itself 

 before the flower whilst probing it with its proboscis, are pre- 

 cisely like the same actions of humming-birds. This resem- 

 blance has attracted the notice of the natives, who firmly 

 believe that one is transmutable into the other. The resem- 

 blance between this hawk-moth and the humming-bird is 

 certainly very curious, and strikes one, even when both are 

 examined in the hand. Holding them sideways, the shape of 

 the head and position of the eyes in the moth are seen to be 

 nearly the same as in the bird, the extended proboscis repre- 

 senting the long beak. At the tip of the moth's body there 

 is a brush of long hair-scales, resembling feathers, which, being 



