120 HUMMING BIRD. 
mediate flowers, to those of the humble larkspur, he ranges at will, 
and almost incessantly. Every period of the season produces a fresh 
multitude of new favorites. Towards the month of September, there 
is a yellow flower which grows in great luxuriance along the sides 
of creeks and rivers, and in low, moist situations; it grows to the 
height of two or three feet, and the flower, which is about the size of 
a thimble, hangs in the shape of a cap of liberty above a luxuriant 
growth of green leaves. It is the Balsamina noli me tangere of bot- 
anists, and is the greatest favorite with the Humming Bird of all our 
other flowers. In some places, where these plants abound, you may 
see, at one time, ten or twelve Humming Birds darting about, and 
fighting with and pursuing each other. About the 20th of September 
they generally retire to the south. I have, indeed, sometimes seen a 
solitary individual on the 28th and 30th of that month, and sometimes 
even in October; but these cases are rare. About the beginning of 
November, they pass the southern boundary of the United States into 
Florida. 
The Humming Bird is three inches and a half in length, and four 
and a quarter in extent; the whole back, upper part of the neck, sides 
under the wings, tail-coverts, and two middle feathers of the tail, are 
of a rich, golden green; the tail is forked, and, as well as the wings, 
of a deep brownish purple; the bill and eyes are black; the legs and 
feet, both of which are extremely small, are also black; the bill is 
straight, very slender, a little inflated at the tip, and very incompetent 
to the exploit of penetrating the tough, sinewy side of a Crow, and 
precipitating it from the clouds to the earth, as Charlevoix would per- 
suade his readers to believe.* The nostrils are two small, oblong slits, 
situated at the base of the upper mandible, scarcely perceivable when 
the bird is dead, though very distinguishable and prominent when 
living; the sides of the belly, and belly itself, dusky white, mixed 
with green; but what constitutes the chief ornament of this little 
bird is the splendor of the feathers of his throat, which, when placed 
in a proper position, glow with all the brilliancy of the ruby. These 
feathers are of singular strength and texture, lying close together like 
scales, and vary, when moved before the eye, from a deep black toa 
fiery crimson and burning orange. The female is destitute of this 
ornament, but differs little in other appearance from the male; her 
tail is tipped with white, and the whole lower parts are of the same 
tint. The young birds of the first season, both male and female, have 
the tail tipped with white, and the whole lower parts nearly white; in 
the month of September, the ornamental feathers on the throat of the 
young males begin to appear. 
On dissection, the heart was found to be remarkably large, nearly 
as big as the cranium; and the stomach, though distended with food, 
uncommonly small, not exceeding the globe of the eye, and scarcely 
more than one sixth part as large as the heart; the fibres of the last 
were also exceedingly strong. The brain was in large quantity, and 
very thin; the tongue, from the tip to an extent equal with the length 
of the bill, was perforated, forming two closely-attached parallel and 
cylindrical tubes; the other extremities of the tongue corresponded 
* Histoire de la Nouvelle France, iii. p 185. 
