202 HUMMING-BIRDS. 
or buzzing sound which they produce with their wings, especially while they 
are hovering in their cur ous fasniun over a tempting Llussom, and feed- 
ing on its contents while suspended in the air. 
The legs of these birds are remarkably weak and delicate, and the wings 
are proportionately strong, a combination which shows that the creatures are 
intended to pass more of their time in the air than on foot. Even when 
feeding they very seldom trouble themselves to perch, but suspend them- 
selves in the air before the flower on which they desire to operate, and with 
their long slender tongues are able to feed at ease without alighting. In the 
skeleton, especially in the shape of the breast-bone and wings, as well as in 
the comparative small size of the feet, the Humming-birds bear some 
analogy to the swifts, and, like those birds, never lay more than two eggs. 
The flight of these birds is inconceivably rapid, so rapid indeed that the 
eye cannot follow it when the bird puts forth its full speed ; and with such 
wonderful rapidity do 
the little sharp - cut 
wings beat the air, that 
their form is quite lost, 
B and while the bird is 
; hovering near a single 
j/ spot, the wings look 
like two filmy grey fans 
attached to the sides, 
While darting from one 
flower to another the 
bird can hardly be seen 
at all, and it seems to 
#] come suddenly into ex- 
istence at some spot,’ 
and as suddenly to van- 
ish from sight. Some 
Humming -birds are 
fond of towering to a 
great height in the air, 
and descending from 
thence to their nests or 
to feed, while others 
keep near the ground, 
De 
HUMMING-BIRDS. 
and are seldom seen at an elevation of many yards. 
The food of the Humming-bird is much the same as that of the honey- 
suckers, except. perhaps, that they consume more honey and fewer flies. 
Still, they are extremely fond of small insects, and if kept away from this 
kind of diet soon pine away, in spite of unlimited supplies of syrup and 
other sweet food. 
In order to enable the Humming-bird to extract the various substances on 
which it feeds from the interior of the flowers, the beak is always long and 
delicate, and in shape is extremely variable, probably on account of the 
particular flowers on which the bird feeds. In some instances the bill is 
nearly straight, in others it takes a sharp sickle-like downward curve, while 
in some it possesses a double curve. The general form of the beak is 
however a very gently downward curve, and in all instances it is pointed at its 
extremity. At the base the upper mandible is wider than tre tower, which 
is received into its hollow. Their nostrils are placed at the base of the 
beak, and defended by a little scale-like shield. 
The plumage is very closely set on the body, and is possessed of a metallic 
