24 Bird Portraits 



artificial trumpet-vine flowers, and by filling them with sugar water, 

 to provide a daily feast for her Humming-bird neighbors. Though 

 the birds are very irritable and pugnacious when wild, frequently 

 attacking each other with the shrill squeaks which are their only 

 notes, yet, in captivity, they prove very gentle and almost affectionate. 

 The Humming-bird has discovered another method of obtaining the 

 sweet liquor which it loves. The Sapsucker, or Yellow-bellied Wood- 

 pecker, is in the habit of drilling rows of small holes into the maples 

 of the northern forests, and sucking out the sap which fills these 

 little wells. Many insects are attracted to the sweet fluid, and the 

 Humming-birds also come as uninvited guests to the feast; so that 

 while the Woodpecker is drinking on one side of the tree, butter- 

 flies, bees, wasps, and Humming-birds are fluttering about the other. 



By the end of September, the season for honey gatherers is 

 about over in the North, and the wings which can support the little 

 body for so many seconds in front of a flower, now take it southward 

 to the tropics, where there are always flowers. It is not until May, 

 not until the red blossoms of the Japan quince are open, that the 

 Humming-birds return. 



The Ruby-throated Humming-bird is the only species found 

 on the Atlantic coast; the female, however, lacks the ruby throat, 

 and is sometimes taken for another species. Humming-birds seen 

 at dusk, if caught, will prove to be, not birds but clear-winged or 

 Humming-bird moths. In South America, however, there are over 

 four hundred different species of Humming-birds. A museum case 

 full of these is a marvel of beauty and interest; the iridescent colors 

 of their gorgets, or throat-pieces, the variety of shapes which their 

 bills assume, the development of their throat and tail feathers, give 

 one the impression of a show case full of fantastic jewels. 



