154



A French Member of the Society,



sounded through the room as an incessant war cry. Each Hummer

wanted the whole of his own tree or branch, all the feeders, or

rather, the whole of the two large aviaries, entirely to himself.

Two of my little green Hummers I foolishly failed to catch and

rescue in good time, and, although they had been the most pugna¬

cious, they speedily died from worry, consequent upon the unnatural

strain of a life wholly devoted to warfare. Soon the small Sunbirds

sharing the aviary with the Hummers began to look less cheerful.

Ethopyga nepalensis had to snatch hasty and miserable meals at

moments when the foe’s watch was slightly relaxed; (Ethopyga

saturata stopped his pretty warbles. Then I saw something must

be done and without delay. In one single afternoon my two aviaries

were torn down from walls they had adorned for over a year: an

invasion of tables, stands, tripods, cages of all sizes filled the room,

each single bird was captured and given a separate house all to

himself, and peace at last reigned supreme.


It is difficult to describe a Hummer’s fighting methods. He

does not use his beak for such a purpose, nearly to the same extent

as other birds, on account of its extreme fragility. His great plan

is to knock down the enemy by violent and repeated assaults, darting

at him again and again with the speed and force of a small catapult;

indeed such is the impetus that the blow would be enough to stun

if not to kill a bird much bigger than himself. Screaming, shaking

their heads and bodies, with tails spread out in the shape of a fan,

all are symptoms of rage and signals of imminent fighting. Match¬

ing is never considered: a Garnet-throated Humming Bird,—a

creature about equal in size to the common Wren—thinks nothing

at all of going for a Double-collared Sunbird, nor is the latter very

likely to “ stand up ” to him. The fury of the attack, also the loud

hizz of the wonderful wings, which these birds can and do intensify

at will, generally succeed in cowing most occupants of the place,

and even now this impish rage has not abated. Two of my strongest

Garnets, who inhabit twin cages in close vicinity on the same shelf,

spend their time in swearing and shaking at one another behind the

bars, whirring and buzzing about with that peculiar flip-flap of

the wing, which in their world is paramount to a challenge in



ours.



