44 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



tion, and to show how all the colors, scents, and singular forms 

 of flowers have some useful purpose." 



Sprengel made no mention of bird-pollination at the time of 

 his writings, and overlooked the fact that some of these flowers 

 are adapted more to birds than to insects. It is readily 

 seen that a strictly speciahzed type of humming-bird, such as 

 the foreign Hermit species, would fail to exist in our latitude. 

 It is adapted to certain South American plants having the 

 corolla often several inches in length. 



On the other hand, it was possible for a less differentiated 

 bird type, with less specialized feeding habits, like our ruby- 

 throated humming-bird, to succeed in estabUshing itself here. 

 It is my opinion that insects were probably the first to visit 

 flowers, but birds in search of these animals as food acquired a 

 taste for the nectar, incidentally at first, and finally established 

 an inherent taste for honey. Our own ruby-throat changes 

 his diet from nectar to small spiders, or back again, according 

 to the whim of his individual taste. While insects that frequent 

 flowers often bear strictly specialized mouth parts in adaptation 

 to their mode of hfe, the humming-bird's head and body appear 

 to have been changed in accordance with his habits. Aside 

 from the bill, which is modified in a remarkable manner, our 

 ruby-throat bears unmistakable evidence of possessing devices 

 which aid in the transference of pollen from one flower to 

 another. The first account describing these structures I have 

 published under the title of " Ornithophilus Pollination" in the 

 American Naturalist, 1894. Moreover, it is from this source 

 I have abstracted the following account of the method by 

 which this bird pollinizes plants. 



"The common ruby-throated humming-bird bears upon 

 careful study evidence that the mouth parts and feathers 

 have certain means for the harboring of pollen. The ana- 

 tomical peculiarities of this bird's head allow access to flowers 

 covering a wide range of forms. By reason of some flexibility, 

 the bill is capable of probing to the bottom of nearly all 

 the forms of flowers commonly met with. In the feeding 

 process, familiar to almost every one, the flower is often bent 

 over to be relieved of its juices. A cursdry examination, with 

 the naked eye, of this bird's head does not reveal with 



