my Humming Birds and how I obtained them. 153


that Hummers in nature are very largely insectivorous, while the

nectar extracted from flowers acts either as a simple digestive, or as

necessary complement to the more solid food, is a fact which, both

from the general knowledge of those who studied them in the wild,

and from my own much more restricted experience, remains no

more open to doubt than is their amazing ability to fly in every

conceivable direction or attitude, be it sideways or backwards, with

as much ease and grace as they show when hovering, with tremu¬

lous wings, over an object they wish to probe.


Early last July the Hummers began to drop feathers and

moult. They sat clumsily and laboriously engaged in the act of

scratching, for a Hummer cannot rest on one leg, and it takes him

all his time to keep his balance if he must use one foot for other

purposes but that of clutching his support. The moult, as I ex¬

pected, proved rather slow, only now can I fairly say, it is over

at last (November); and the rich reflections of the birds’ plumage

showing up more brilliantly than ever, as well as their greater

vivacity and slimmer, tighter shape, are sufficient signs that they

suffered no ill-effects from that trying time. Only the tiny Bellona

exilis succumbed after heroic efforts : the little fellow wanted ever

so much to live the short spell allotted him by nature, and I cannot

yet bear to think of his death.


It was just after the moult that the Hummers declared war

on each other, and, in fact, on every bird in the room, thus proving

that animal life is not, after all, so very unlike our own, which after

evolving from its early stages, now seems inclined to revert to

conditions apparently held as ideal by certain rulers and nations of

the present day. Whether an increase of vitality, attributable to a

successful dropping of the old garb and assuming of the new plumage

brought out the old fighting instinct amongst the Humming Birds,

which so far had only appeared at intervals, and so to speak lay

dormant; or whether the season coincided with their breeding-time,

it is not for me to decide, as I am wholly ignorant of their habits in

the wild state ; but it is quite certain that about the middle of

October it became impossible to continue keeping the Hummers

together or with any other birds whatever. All day they were “ at

it ” ! all day the furious “ skrip, skrip,” which seems their only call,



