862 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Hab. Eastern North America. north to 57° in the Interior; In winter.Ouba.Bahamas. 

 eastern Mexico, and Central America, south to Veragua; also Bermudas. 



"Sp. Chak. Tail In the male deeply forked: the feathers all narrow lanceolate-aoute. 

 In the female slightly rounded and emarginate; the feathers broader, though pointed. 

 Male, uniform metallic green above; a ruby-red gorget (blackish near the bill); with no 

 conspicuous ruff; a white collar on the jugulum; sides of body greenish; tail-feathers 

 uniformly brownish violet. Female, without the red on the throat; the t.iil rounded and 

 emarginate. the Inner feathers shorter than the outer: the tail-ffiathers banded with 

 black, and the outer tipped with white; no rufous or cinnamon on the tail in either sex. 

 Length, 3. 25; wing,1.60; tail,1.25. Young males are like the females; the throat usually 

 spotted, sometimes with red; the tail Is, in shape.more like that of the old male." [Hist. 

 N. Am. B.) 



Little need be said as to the habits of the well-known Humming- 

 bird. Its distribution is general over every portion of the State — or 

 indeed over every portion of the continent from the Great Plains 

 to the Atlantic coast and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. 

 Arriving among us when spring has fairly come, and departing 

 just before the first autumnal frosts, these httle birds traverse a 

 distance in theii' migrations that appears almost impossible to 

 creatures so minute, many individuals making their winter homes 

 as far south as Veragua, in the State of New Granada, immechate- 

 ly north of the Isthmus of Panama. 



When captured, the Hummingbird becomes in a short time so 

 tame as to sit confidingly on one's finger and sip syrup (best made 

 of white sugar dissolved in warm water) from a saucer, but on ac- 

 count of its dehcate organization and susceptibility to cold, attempts 

 to keep it in confinement during ^vinter have failed. The late Mr. 

 John Gould, author and pubhsher of the most magnificently illus- 

 trated bird-books ever produced — probably the finest of them being 

 a monograph of the Hummingbirds-succeeded in taking several 

 specimens across the Atlantic to England; but they died almost 

 immediately after their arrival in that country. 



