388 BIRDS — TROCHILID^. 



Teochilus colubbis Linnaeus. 



liuby-tlrroated Humraingbird. 



TrocMlua colubris, Kietland, Ohio Geolog. Snrv., 1838, 164. — Read, Proo. PMla. Acad. 



Nat. Soi., vi, 1853, 395.— Kikkpatrick, Ohio Farmer, ix, 1860, 163. — Wheaton, Ohio 



Agrio. Rep. for 1860, 363 ; Reprint, l!<61, 4 ; Pood of Birds, etc., Ohio Agrio. Rep. 



for 1874, 569 ; Reprint, 1875, 9.— Langdon, Cat. Birds of Gin., 1877, 11 ; Revised 



List, Journ. Gin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 178; Reprint, 15J. 

 Hummingbird, Ballotj, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 136. 

 TrocMlus colubria, Linn^us, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 191. 



Male yrith the tail forked, its feathers all narrow and pointed ; no scales on crown ; 

 metallic gorget reflecting rnby-red, etc. ; above golden-green ; below white, the sides 

 green ; wings and tail dnsky-pnrplish. The female lacking the gorget; the throat white ; 

 the tail somewhat donble-rouuded, with black bars, and the outer feathers white- tipped. 

 Length, 3J ; wing, 1} ; bill, f . 



Habitat, North America, east of the Rocky Mountains. Norfi to 57° at least. Sonth 

 to Brazil. Cuba, 



Very common summer resident. Breeds. Arrives in May and departs 

 in October. The Hummingbird, so well-known as the smallest of all 

 our birds, and whose iridescent plumage, peculiar structure, and swift 

 flight seem to us to separate it from all other birds, is in Eastern North 

 America, the only representative of a numerous family, confined to this 

 continent, and most numerous in South America. About a dozen species 

 are found in North America, all but the present confined to the region 

 west of the Mississippi. 



The food of Hummingbirds consists for the most part of small insects 

 which they obtain from the interior of deep flowers, and which are there 

 secure from the pursuit of other birds. Their nearest relative, with us, is 

 the Chimney Swift, and like that bird they take their food while on the 

 wing. No object can be more graceful or beautiful than one of these 

 birds poised in air, before a favorite flower, the body surrounded by the 

 misty halo of their rapidly vibrating wings. Their flight is very swift, 

 direct and prolonged, resembling that of an insect rather than a bird. 

 In some locations, as a flowery woodland, or low bank of a stream where 

 rank vegetation is blooming, they appear in flocks to feed both before 

 and after the breeding season. 



The nest of the Hummingbird is a remarkably beautiful structure. It 

 is placed on a horizontal limb of a forest tree, or in an orchard, and is 

 composed of soft down from the stems of plants, covered artistically with 

 bits of gray lichen from the trunks of trees Seen in position, it resem- 

 bles a moss covered knot. The eggs are two only, pure white, nearly 

 spherical, and measure but .50 by .35. 



