378 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



in any way to bring a just conception of it to the ideas of those who have not crossed the 

 Atlantic; and even the comparison so often made between them and the Sphingidce, though 

 doubtless in the main true, is much to the advantage of the latter. One is admiring the clustering 

 stars of a scarlet Cord/a, the snowy cornucopias of a Portlandia, or some other brilliant and beautiful 

 flower, when between the blossoms and one's eye suddenly appears a small dark object, suspended 

 as it were between four short black threads meeting each other in a cross. For an instant it shows in 

 front of the flower ; an instant more it steadies itself, and one perceives the space between each 

 pair of threads occupied by a grey film; again another instant, and, emitting a momentary 



flash of emerald and sapphire light, it 

 is vanishing, lessening in the distance 

 as it shoots away, to a speck that the 

 eye cannot take note of and all this 

 so rapidly that the word on one's lips 

 is still unspoken, scarcely the thought 

 in one's mind changed. It was a bold 

 man or an ignorant one who first ven- 

 tured to depict Humming birds flying ; 

 but it cannot be denied that repre- 

 sentations of them are often of special 

 use to the ornithologist. The peculiar 

 action of one, and probably of many or 

 all other species of the family, is such, 

 that at times in flying it makes the 

 wings almost meet, both in front 

 and behind, at each vibration. Thus, 

 when a bird chances to enter a room 

 it will generally go buzzing along the 

 cornice. Standing beneath where it is, 

 one will find that the axis of the 

 body is vertical, and each wing is tie- 

 scribing a nearly perfect semicircle. 

 As might be expected, the pectoral 

 muscles are very large ; indeed, the 

 sternum of this bird is a good deal 

 bigger than that of the common 

 Chimney Swallow (Hirundo rustica). 

 But the extraordinary rapidity with 

 which the vibrations are effected seems 

 to be chiefly caused by these powerful 

 muscles acting on the very short wing- 



WHITE-BOOTED RACKET TAIL. boilCS, which ai'6 HOt half tll6 length 



of the same parts in the Swallow ; and 



accordingly, great as this alar action is, and in spite of the contrary opinion entertained by Mr. 

 Gosse, it is yet sometimes wanting in power, owing, doubtless, to the disadvantageous leverage 

 thus obtained; and the old authoi-s must be credited who speak of cobwebs catching Humming 

 birds. On the 3rd of May, 1857, a bird of this species flew into the room where I was sitting, 

 and after fluttering for some minutes against the ceiling, came in contact with a deserted spider's 

 web, in which it got entangled, and remained suspended and perfectly helpless for more than a 

 minute, when by a violent effort it freed itself. I soon after caught it, still having fragments of 

 the web on its head, neck, and wings ; and I feel pretty sure, that had this web been inhabited 

 and in good repair, instead of being deserted and dilapidated, the bird would never have escaped." 



Mr. A. R. Wallace has written the following account of the habits of Humming birds on the 

 River Amazon : " The greater number of species that frequent flowers do so, I am convinced, for 



