214 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



blance even when I know better. Now I am sure it is a 

 hummingbird, and now that it is two farmers approach- 

 ing. But presently the hum becomes more sharp and 

 thrilling, and the little fellow suddenly perches on an ash 

 twig within a rod of me, and plumes himself while the 

 rain is fairly beginning. He is quite out of proportion to 

 the size of his perch. It does not acknowledge his weight. 



May 16, 1858. A hummingbird yesterday came into 

 the next house and was caught. Flew about our parlor 

 to-day and tasted Sophia's flowers. In some lights you 

 saw none of the colors of its throat. In others, in the 

 shade the throat was a clear bright scarlet, but in the 

 sun it glowed with splendid metallic, fiery reflections 

 about the neck and throat. It uttered from time to time, 

 as it flew, a faint squeaking chirp or chirrup. The hum 

 sounded more hollow when it approached a flower. Its 

 wings fanned the air so forcibly that you felt the cool 

 wind they raised a foot off, and nearer it was very re- 

 markable. Does not this very motion of the wings keep 

 a bird cool in hot weather ? 



May 17, 1858. When the hummingbird flew about the 

 room yesterday, his body and tall hung in a singular 

 manner between the wings, swinging back and forth 

 with a sort of oscillating motion, not hanging directly 

 down, but yet pulsating or teetering up and down. 



July 9, 1860. There is a smart shower at 5 P. M., 

 and in the midst of it a hummingbird is busy about the 

 flowers in the garden, unmindful of it, though you would 

 think that each big drop that struck him would be a 

 serious accident. 



[See also under General and Miscellaneous, p. 423.] 



