ioo Wonders of the Bird World 



course, producing a sound as if two fine leather belts were 

 flapped together. The old male soon tired of the perform- 

 ance, forced the young one to sit down, and then performed 

 himself in the same way, but he flipped the spatules 

 together above, instead of beloiv, the tail as the young one 

 did. At times the adult male would also fly before 

 the female from side to side, making a noise with the 

 spatules that could be heard thirty yards away. If the 

 young one returned alone, he would attack a dry leaf 

 furiously, peck at it, and flap the tail for many minutes 

 at a time. 



" Once two young birds met, attacking each other. The 

 sitting bird would watch the flying one, moving its head 

 from side to side, and then suddenly slip off the branch 

 into a hanging position. The flying bird would still attack 

 it ; yet the hanging one, though imitating death, had its 

 eyes open." 1 



Although Humming-birds have no actual song, as we 

 understand it, yet they produce extraordinary noises with 

 the wings during the nesting time, which are supposed by 

 those who have heard them to correspond with the love- 

 notes of other birds during the breeding season. Thus 

 Mr. Kershaw, writing of the Broad-tailed Humming-bird 

 (Selasphorus platycercus), observes — " During the mating, 

 and perhaps also through the entire breeding season, the 

 flight of the male is always accompanied by a curious, loud, 

 metallic, rattling noise, which he is enabled to produce in 

 some way by means of the attenuation of the outer 

 primaries. This is, I think, intentionally made, and is 

 analogous to the love-note of other birds. Though I saw 

 many of these birds in the fall, it was only very rarely that 

 this whistling noise was heard, and then with greatly 

 diminished force." 



Mr. Ridgway says that he has heard the above-named 

 1 ' Novitates Zoologicae,' vol. iii. p. 10. 



