226 THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



the elegance and grace of their movements. They are found only 

 in America and some of the adjacent islands, and are most plenti- 

 ful in Mexico and the countries bordering upon the equator. 



The flight of these little birds is very remarkable. Perhaps we 

 can best describe it by comparing it to that of a certain moth which 

 is not at all uncommon in England, and may be noticed on almost 

 any sunny summer day. 



While looking at the blossom of a honeysuckle or geranium, 

 or some other plant, we may have seen hovering in front of it a 

 shadowy form, which vanishes as soon as we move. But if we 

 remain motionless again it reappears, and begins hovering as 

 before. By using very great caution we see that it is a stout- 

 bodied, brownish moth, which, with its long slender trunk extended, 

 is sucking the nectar out of the flowers. 



This is a Humming-bird Hawk-moth, so called from its marked 

 resemblance to the beautiful little birds of which we are speaking. 

 So decided is the likeness, indeed, that many a resident in America 

 or the West Indies, on visiting this country, has written to the 

 newspapers to say that he has seen a humming-bird hovering in 

 front of a flower, and has afterwards been quite astonished to find 

 that it was only a moth. 



Now humming-birds hover in front of flowers in exactly the 

 same manner as this moth, and for just the same reason: they 

 plunge their long beaks into the blossoms, and suck the nectar 

 which gathers in them. Many of these birds appear to frequent 

 one particular kind of flower only, and have their beaks specially 

 formed to allow them to penetrate into its recesses. Some 

 humming-birds, for example, have long and perfectly straight 

 beaks. The beaks of others are curved upwards; those of others, 

 again, are curved downwards. And there is one humming-bird 

 which visits flowers of a very peculiar shape, and in consequence 

 has a beak with a double curve. 



But we must not allow ourselves to think that humming-birds 

 feed entirely upon nectar, for this would be a great mistake. The 

 principal part of their food, indeed, consists of small insects which 

 they find in the very flowers that they visit in quest of nectar; so 

 that these flowers supply them with both food and drink. They 



