THE HUMMING BIRDS OF CHOCORUA. 591 



the chances are that it is a new settlement. In July, 1893, twenty 

 gray birches within an area a hundred feet square had been 

 scarred by the woodpeckers. About half of these were dead, and 

 out of the entire number only four trees were newly drilled and 

 sap-yielding. In many ways this orchard proved to be the most 

 interesting I have watched. The family of sapsuckers using it 

 was not pugnacious, and in consequence other birds visited it 

 much more freely than is generally the case. Downy woodpeck- 

 ers occasionally sipped at its fountains ; black-and-white creeping 

 warblers regularly, though warily, visited its insect hoards, and 

 during the autumn migration of 1892 a pair of yellow-breasted 

 flycatchers spent many days in constant attendance upon its trees, 

 around which countless insects fluttered or hummed. 



The four sap-yielding trees at this orchard appeared in July, 

 1893, to have been appropriated, subject to the prior claims of the 

 woodpeckers, by three humming birds, a female and two males. 

 No one of these birds permitted either of the others or any one 

 of numerous filibustering humming birds to drink at its pre- 

 empted wells. If trespass was attempted, the most furious assault 

 was made upon the intruder, and the possessor was always vic- 

 torious. Thus, if the female at the eastern tree attempted to ap- 

 proach the western tree, the male on guard there drove her away ; 

 while if he entered upon her dominions, he was swiftly repulsed. 

 The details of these meetings were sometimes very extraordinary. 

 In one instance a visiting female persisted for nearly ten minutes 

 in trying to secure a foothold at the western tree. The savage little 

 male met her with his usual impetuous charge, but she dodged 

 him, and began a strange sinuous flight among the branches, 

 back and forth, up and down, round and through, over and under, 

 until the air seemed filled with pursued and pursuer, dizzily 

 maintaining their mysterious flight within from five to a hundred 

 feet of the disputed drinking place. Much of the time the female 

 seemed to be facing the male and flying, backward slowly with 

 head erect ; then there would come a swift buzz-z-z, and a clear 

 space between the trees would be traversed by both birds with 

 the speed of light, a slower flight being resumed the moment foli- 

 age was entered. If the male paused in his pursuit, the female 

 drew near again to the coveted drills, and so forced him to renew 

 the chase. Sometimes they moved so slowly that they seemed 

 like bubbles or airy seed vessels wafted by the breeze, and some- 

 times they flew in short, ever-changing lines, so that the eye 

 wearied of watching them. At last the female gave up the 

 struggle and vanished above the neighboring tree tops. 



Frequently the visitors did not come singly, but arrived two 

 or three together, and made combined attacks upon the drills. 

 Then the air would be filled with violent humming and the most 



