HUMMING BIRDS. 
( Zrochilide.) 
HESE beautiful little creatures will be known at sight. 
Their flying apparatus is like that of the swifts. Feet, 
extremely small and weak, unfit for progression and 
formed exclusively for perching. 
The bill is long and extremely slender for its length; it is 
usually straight, subulate or awl-shaped, or with lancet-shaped 
tip; it is often decurved, sometimes recurved, and again bent at 
almost an angle; in length it varies from less than the head to 
more than all the rest of the bird. 
The Hummers are the least of all birds, the giants among 
them reaching a length of 6 or 7 inches; the pigmies being under 
3 inches; the usual stature is 3 or 4 inches. 
In a few the color is plain, or even sombre; most have glit- 
tering iridescent tints. 
The structure of the tongue somewhat resembles that of 
Woodpeckers, capable of being thrust far out of the beak. The 
tongue is, in effect, a double-barreled tube, supposed to be used 
to suck the sweets of flowers. 
The food of the Hummers was formerly supposed to be the 
sweets of flowers. It is now known that they are chiefly insec- 
tivorous. 
Their nests are models of architectural beauty. The eggs 
are always two in number. 
The young hatch weak and helpless. The voice is not 
musical. The Hummers are peculiar to America. 
Laura embodied in the table so much information 
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