206 2Tt)e Barton's <Stor,. 



not improbable that the music produced by the 

 fanning of innumerable wings should be distin- 

 guished when the performers are invisible. 



I see a humming-bird visiting the wild lilies 

 he can not resist his favorite color red. In a 

 moment he darts to the lime-tree, but only for a 

 moment, when he is rifling the blooms of the 

 Japanese honeysuckle, where he remains sus- 

 pended for a long period, often joined by the 

 female. The boom of his swiftly-vibrating wings 

 is audible where I sit ; it seems as if they cooled 

 the air ! In the garden he skims rapidly over 

 the borders, pausing a minute over the blue 

 larkspurs, invariably visiting the scarlet lychnis 

 and Chalcedonicum lilies ; never neglecting the 

 red monardas, and always returning to the 

 honeysuckles. In Prof. Grant Allen's " Pleased 

 with a Feather " I learn that the metallic luster 

 of his topaz, emerald, and ruby-tinted-throat is 

 due to the fine lines of the feather barbules; 

 and these it also is which give the sable sheen 

 to the crow, whom I admire treading his favor- 

 ite corn-field. 



