THE HUMMING BIRDS. 287 



dart off a short distance aud, after a few whirls and balancings, return to the identi- 

 cal twig they have left. In the evening, too, just, after sunset, when the Goat- 

 suckers are hegiuniug their search after insects over the rivers, I have seen Hum- 

 ming Birds come out of the forest and remain a long time on the wing, now station- 

 ary, now darting ahout with the greatest rapidity, imitating in a limited space the 

 varied evolutions of their companions the Goat-suckers, and evidently for the same 

 end and purpose. 



Many naturalists have noticed this hahit of feeding on insects, but have generally 

 considered it as the exeeptiou, whereas, I am inclined to think it is the rule. The 

 frequenting of flowers seems io me to be only one of the many ways by which they 

 are enabled to procure their insect food. 



Mr. Wallace is probably correct in his belief that insects constitute 

 their principal food so far as the Hermit Humming Birds (Phaethornis 

 aud allied genera) are concerned, for these birds are quite different in 

 many respects from the typical Hummiug Birds; but there can not be 

 the slightest question that, as a rule, the typical hummers feed to a very 

 large extent at least, on the honey or the nectar of flowers. His obser- 

 vation respecting their alleged avoidance of flowers of the Bignoniacece 

 is also unimportant, since the common Ruby-throat (Trochilus colubris) 

 of eastern North America may often be seen extracting its food from 

 the large trumpet-shaped, brilliant orange-red flowers of the native 

 Trumpet Creeper (Tecoma radicans), a typical member of that order of 

 plants. 



In fact, evidence is abuudant and conclusive that Humming Birds 

 will often reject insects when honey is accessible, or even an artificial 

 sirup made of sugar and water is presented to them. Mr. W. H. Bal- 

 lou has recorded, in the "American Naturalist," the result of some exper- 

 iments, suggested by Mr. Wallace's statements, which he made, as fol- 

 lows : 



Two Hummers were attracted to the house by a saucer of sirup placed on a win- 

 dow sill. Each day they would come and satisfy their hunger. In each instance 

 they would alight on the edge of the saucer, and lap up the sirup as a dog would lap 

 water. The question as to whether insects " pass down the tubes or are entangled in 

 the fibrous tips, aud are thus drawn back into the gullet," was also solved. Insects 

 too large to pass through these tubes being placed in their way, the birds were observed 

 to take them as readily as the smaller ones. The insects were evidently secured by 

 adhesion to the saliva of the tongue-tips, and thence drawn into the gullet. 



The following, communicated to "The Auk," for April, 1885 (pp. 218, 

 219), by Mr. S. W. Willard, is also quite to the point : 



Somewhere it has been stated, that the Humming Bird derives the most of its nour- 

 ishment from the minute insects which adhere to the nectar of flowers, and which 

 are imbibed with the honey. Undoubtedly many insects are thus secured and fur- 

 nish their share of nutriment to the species, but in the following account of a Hum- 

 mer in confinement, kindly furnished to me by Miss Hattie Brubaker, it will be seen 

 that insects are not wholly essential to the maintenance of life, in Trochilus colubris at 

 least. 



The bird, she writes, was taken September 1, near De Pere, Wisconsin, and throve 

 nicely until October 28, when it met an untimely death. After it had struggled in 

 vain for nearly 2 days to escape from a room into which it had accidentally flown, 

 it was picked up in an exhausted condition and carefully placed out of doors in an 

 arbor, in. hopes of its recovering sufficiently to fly away. A severe cold rain that night 



