158 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 85 



learned to perch on this flower and drink from it while 

 standing". From the earlier experiments it was suspected 

 that the Humming-birds found the syrup through some sense, 

 rather than stumbling upon it by chance or through imita- 

 tion, but several things disprove such a supposition. The 

 principal one is that migrants passing through the yard in 

 the spring, but more especially in the fall, fail to find the 

 syrup. That these migrants can be recognized as such by 

 their behavior will be shown farther on. 



The twenty-five or more visits paid to bottles No. 5 and 

 No. 6 before they were filled for the first time show that 

 the birds recognized them as receptacles for their food, 

 though they were new bottles occupying new locations. To 

 make sure that the birds should not be attracted to them by 

 seeing me stake the pickets out this work was done after 

 dark. The first summer that No. 6 was out frequent pre- 

 tenses of filling it were made in sight of the birds, but no 

 response followed. The next summer no such pretenses 

 were made yet a Hummingbird was seen to search this un- 

 filled bottle on May 12 and 31, twice on June 1, on July 21 

 and 26, on August 4, 7, 12, 23 and 26. 



One is led to wonder if the Homeric gods on high Olym- 

 pus were more deeply stirred by the appearance lamong 

 them of the youthful Ganymedes bearing cups of nectar, than 

 are the Hummingbirds at sight of their cup-bearer. When 

 several of them are present the wildest confusion reigns. 

 Possibly not one of them is in sight when the door is passed, 

 yet instantly the air seems filled with them : some swinging 

 back and forth in the air, squeaking and fighting, or dart- 

 ing from bottle to bottle thrusting in their bills as they pass, 

 while an over-bold one will buzz about my head, sometimes 

 coming under the porch in her zeal for the meeting; but the 

 timorous ones fly from their perches into sight over the bot- 

 tles then back into a bush. Some one of these types of be- 

 havior marks the bird boarder from the migrant. The latter 

 pays no attention to cup-bearer or bottle but diligently 

 searches each bunch of blossoms. For two or three weeks 



