120 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 



blue over that portion which, at the next moulting, assumes 

 its splendid colors. 



There is no possibility of mistaking the males of the two 

 in the nest or out of it. The bill of the green is much 

 longer and coarser ; as are its shape, plumage, and color, 

 than the ruby, which is one of the most fairy -like and 

 graceful of all the hummers. Their habits do not seem to 

 differ in any very essential particulars, but no observer, how- 

 ever careless, can fail to see the marked difference between - 

 the two varieties when compared together, either on the 

 wing or perched. The flight of the green is the more 

 heavy and slow, and it seems to possess less of spirit and 

 boldness than the other. The pair that returned to me the 

 next spring were green humming birds, and the male of this 

 pair never exhibited either the blueish blotch on the throat, 

 which the ruby has when it comes from the nest, nor was 

 there any change perceptible in the plumage at all, except 

 that the white of the throat and breast had become a purer 

 white, and the green of the back darker, more variable and 

 brilliant. 



The nest, too, is larger by nearly one-third, and less 

 elegantly finished than that of the ruby. So marked is 

 the difference between the two varieties, that I can easily 

 point them out on the wing in our gardens, although, not 

 only all our American naturalists have classed them as one 

 species, but the -great mass of interested observers are not 

 yet aware of the differences. Now, that attention has once 

 been called -to the facts, they are promptly enough seen and 

 recognized. Mr. Audubon gives us four humming birds, 

 north of Texas the Euby-throated, the Mangrove, the Anna, 

 and the Buffed. To this enumeration, I venture to add a 

 fifth, the .common or Emerald humming bird, and it is not a 

 little singular that this species, which of all the rest is most 

 universally diffused, should yet have not been named before. 

 Of the three last named above, the first belongs to Florida, 

 the other two to the Pacific coast. 



