' THE SEARCHERS. - 63 



return regularly every evening for several days together. From the blossoms of the towering tulip-tree, 

 through a thousand intermediate flowers, to those of the humble larkspur, he ranges at will and almost 

 incessantly. About the 20th of September these birds generally retire south, and about November 

 pass the southern boundary of the United States into Florida." 



" No sooner," says Audubon, " does the returning sun again introduce the vernal season, and 

 cause millions of plants to expand their leaves and blossoms to his genial beams, than this Humming 

 Bird is seen advancing on fairy wings, carefully visiting every flower-cup, and, like a curious florist, 

 removing from each the injurious insects that would otherwise, ere long, cause their beauteous 

 petals to droop and decay. Poised in the air, it is observed peeping cautiously and with sparkling 

 eye into their innermost recesses, whilst the ethereal motion of the pinions, so rapid and so light, 

 appears to fan and cool the flowers without injury to their fragile texture, and produces a delightful 

 murmuring sound. Its long delicate beak enters the cup of the flower, and the protruded double 

 tongue, delicate, sensitive, and imbued with a glutinous saliva, touches each insect in succession 

 and draws it from its lurking-place to be instantly swallowed. All this is done in a moment, and 

 the bird as it leaves the flower sips so small a portion of its liquid honey that the theft we may 

 suppose is but a benefit to the flower, which is thus relieved from the attacks of its destroyers. 

 The prairie, the fields, the orchards, and the gardens, nay, the deepest shades of the forest, are all 

 visited in their turn, and everywhere the little bird meets with pleasure and with food. Its gorgeous 

 throat in beauty and brilliancy baffles all description. Now it glows with a fiery hue, and again 

 it changes to the deepest velvet-black. The upper parts of its body are of resplendent changing 

 green, and it throws itself through the air with a swiftness and vivacity hardly conceivable ; it moves 

 from flower to flower like a gleam of light, upwards and downwards, to the right and to the left. 

 During their migrations they pass through the air in long undulations, raising themselves for some 

 distance at an angle of about 40°, and then falling in a curve ; but the smallness of their size precludes 

 the possibility of following them farther than fifty or sixty yards without great difficulty, even with 

 a good glass. They do not alight on the ground, but settle on twigs and branches, where they 

 move sideways in prettily-measured steps, frequently opening and closing their wing, pluming, 

 shaking, and arranging the whole of their apparel with the utmost neatness and activity ; they are 

 particularly fond of spreading one wing at a time, and passing each of the quill-feathers through 

 their bill in its full length, when, if the sun be shining, the wing thus plumed is rendered extremely 

 transparent and light. They quit the twig without the slightest difficulty in an instant, and appear 

 to be possessed of superior powers of vision, making directly towards a Marten or Blue Bird when 

 fifty or sixty yards before them, before it seems aware of their approach. Their food consists 

 principally of insects, generally of the coleopterous order, these, together with some equally 

 diminutive flies, being commonly found in their stomachs. The first are procured within the flowers, 

 but many of the latter on the wing. Where is the person," says Audubon, " who, on seeing this 

 lovely little creature moving on humming winglets through the air, suspended as if by magic, flitting 

 from one flower to another with motions as graceful as they are light and airy, pursuing its course 

 and yielding new delight wherever it is seen — where is the person who, on observing this glittering 

 fragment of a rainbow, would not pause, admire, and turn his mind with reverence towards the 

 Almiglity Creator, the wonders of whose Iiand we at every step discover, and of whose sublime 

 conceptions we everywhere obser\'e the manifestation in His admirable system of Creation ?" 



"When morning dawns, and the blest sun again 

 Lifts his red glories o'er the eastern main. 

 Then througli our woodbines, wet witli glittering dews, 

 ; . The flower-fed Hinnming Bird his way pursues, 



