368 RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. 



backward and to the side with equal ease and dexterity. It "may be said to live in 

 the air — an element in which it performs every kind of evolution with the utmost ease, 

 frequently rising perperdicularly, flying backward, pirouetting or dancing off, as it 

 were." This backward motion of flying, to which the words of Mr. Gould, just cited, 

 refer, is peculiar to the Hummingbirds. 



Prof. Robert Ridgway has noticed "that the backward motion is greatly assisted 

 by a forward flirt of the expanded tail as the bird shifts from place to place, or from 

 one part of a tree to another, sometimes descending, at others ascending. It often 

 towers up above the trees, and then shoots off like a little meteor at a right angle ; at 

 other times it quietly buzzes away among the flowers near the ground ; at one moment 

 it is poised over a diminutive weed, at the next it is seen at a distance of forty yards, 

 whither it has vanished with the quickness of thought. During the heat of the day the 

 shady retreats beneath the trees are frequently visited; in the morning and evening the 

 sunny banks, the verandas, and other exposed situations are more frequently resorted to." 



Dr. T. M. Brewer gives the following excellent account of its motions on the 

 ■ w^ing: "The Hummingbird is entirely aerial. They pass with the rapidity of an 

 arrow, stop, rest for a few seconds on some small branch, and then suddenly depart 

 with so much rapidity that we cannot trace its flight. They disappear as if by 

 enchantment. Their life is one of feverish excitement. They seem to live more intensely 

 than any other being on our globe. From morning to night they traverse the air in 

 quest of honeyed flow^ers. They come like a flash of light, assume a vertical position 

 without any support, throw their tail forward, expanding it like a fan, vibrating their 

 wings with such rapidity that they become absolutely invisible, plunging, at the same 

 time, their thread-like tongues to the bottom of some long corolla, and then they have 

 gone as suddenly as they came. They are never known to rest on a branch in order 

 more at their leisure to plunge their tongue into the flower. Their life is too short for 

 this delay ; they are in too great haste ; they can only stop long enough to beat their 

 wings before each flower for a few seconds, but long enough to reach its bottom and 

 to devour its inhabitants. When w^e take into consideration how entirely aerial is their 

 life, and the prodigious relative force requisite to enable them to keep suspended in the 

 air during the entire day, almost incessantly, either in rapid motion or accomplishing 

 the most violent vibrations, we can but be amazed at the extraordinary powers of 

 flight and endurance they manifest." 



The Ruby-throat does not remain long on the wing at a time, taking frequently 

 a short rest, choosing for this purpose usually a small twig at the extremity of a tree 

 or shrub. I have also noticed it perched on a wash-line, and on flower stalks. At such 

 times it is busily engaged in trimpiing its plumage, or it cleans its long bill and stretches 

 and preens the feathers of its long wings. The bird thus affords a variety of graceful 

 attitudes, displaying particular parts of its plumage to advantage. 



Although the Hummingbird explores a great variety of flowers for diminutive 

 insects and sweet nectar, those with tubular blossoms are particularly its favorites. 

 Thus twining honey-suckles, the vase-like flowers of the red clematis {Clematis coccinea), 

 the pretty flowers of the pentstemons, various Labiates (such as Monarda, Salvia, etc.), 

 and especially the gorgeous flower-trusses of the trumpet-creeper {Tecoma radicans) are 



