THE HUMMING BIRDS. 273 



must naturally have reached its culminating point when he first beheld 

 living specimens in the full freedom of their native haunts. He thus 

 tersely describes their flight : 



Although many short intermissions of rest are taken during the day, the bird may 

 be said to live in air— an element in which it performs every kind of evolution with 

 the utmost ease, frequently rising perpendicularly, flying backward, pirouetting or 

 dancing off, as it were. 



Regarding the ability of the Humming Bird to fly backward, we 

 quote the following, by Bradford Terrey, from Science, vol. n, No. 34, 

 p. 436 : 



The Duke of Argyle, in his Reign of Law (p. 145), lays it down in italics, that " no 

 bird can ever fly backwards." He meutious the Humming Bird as appearing to do so, 

 but maintains that in reality it falls rather than flies, when, for instance, he comes 

 out of a tubular flower. But this moruiug while watching the motions of a Hum- 

 ming Bird (Trochilus colubris), it occurred to me to test the dictum of the duke, and 

 unless my eyes were altogether at fault, the bird did actually fly backwards. He was 

 probing, one after another, the blossoms of a petunia bed, and more than once, when 

 the flower happened to be low down, he plainly rose rather than fell as ho backed 

 away from it. 



The present writer has observed the same thing, but has noticed that 

 the backward motion is greatly assisted by a forward flirt of the ex- 

 panded 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 momeut it is poised over a diminutive weed, 

 at the next it is seen at a distance of 40 yards, whither it has vanished 

 with the quickness of thought. During the heat of the day the shady 

 retreats beneath the trees are very frequently visited ; in the morning 

 and evening the sunny banks, the verandas, and other exposed situa- 

 tions are more frequently resorted to. 



"All the Humming Birds," says Mr. Gosse, " have more or less the 

 habit when in flight of pausing in the air, and throwing the body and 

 tail into rapid and odd cortortions ; this seems to be mostly tue case 

 with the Mango (Lampomis mango), but perhaps is more observable in 

 Polytmus from the effect that such motions have on the beautiful long 

 feathers of the tail. That the object of these quick turns is the capture 

 of insects I am sure, having watched one thus engaged pretty close to 

 me. I drew up and observed it carefully and distinctly saw the minute 

 flies in the air, which it pursued and caught, and heard repeatedly the 

 snapping of the beak. My presence scarcely disturbed it, if at all." 



That there are exceptions to the manner of flight which we have de- 

 scribed, is true, but they probably are not numerous. One of the most 

 notable is that of the Giant Humming Bird (Patagona gigas) of the 

 Andes, which, Darwin says, whilst hovering over a flower flaps its wings 

 with a very slow and powerful movement, totally different from that 

 vibratory one common to most of the species, which produces the hum- 

 H. Mis. 129, pt. 2 18 



