THE HUMMING BIRDS. 289 



amusing to see the odd position of his Lead and body as he clung to the bottle with 

 his beak inserted perpendicularly into the cork. Several times in tbe course of the 

 evening he had recourse to his new fountain, which was as often replenished for him, 

 and at length, about sunset, betook himself 1o a line stretched across the room for 

 repose. 



In view of the somewhat conflicting evidence as to whether insects 

 or nectar constitute their principal food, it may be well to examine the 

 structure of the tongue of Humming Birds, and by doing so determine, 

 if possible, which side of the controversy is most favored thereby. 

 No one has described the tongue of a Humming Bird so tersely as Mr. 

 Gosse, whose description of the tongue of Aithurus polytmus, herewith 

 given, was taken from freshly killed specimens : 



The tongue of this species (and doubtless others have a similar conformation) pre- 

 sents, when recent, the appearance of two tubes laid side by side, united for half 

 their length, but separate for the remainder. Their substance is transparent in the 

 same degree as a good quill, which they much resemble. Each tube is formed by a 

 lamina rolled up, yet not so as to bring the edges into actual contact, for there is a 

 longitudinal fissure on the outer side, running up considerably higher than the junc- 

 tion of the tubes; into this fissure the point of a pin may be inserted and moved up 

 and down the length. Near the top the outer edge of each lamina ceases to be con- 

 voluted, but is spread out, and split at the margin into irregular fimbriae which point 

 backward, somewhat like the vane of a feather. These are not barbs, however, but 

 simply soft and flexible points, such as might be produced by snipping diagonally the 

 edge of a strip of paper. I conjecture that the nectar of flowers is pumped up the 

 tubes, and that minute insects are caught, when in flowers, in these spoon-like tips, 

 their minute limbs being perhaps entangled in tbe fimbria?, when the tongue is 

 retracted into the beak, and the insects swallowed by the ordinary process, as doubt- 

 less those are which are captured with the beak in flight. I do not thoroughly 

 understand the mode by which liquids are taken up by a Humming Bird's tongue, 

 though I have carefully watched the process. If syrup be presented to one in a 

 quill, the tongue is protruded for about half an inch into the liquor, the beak resting 

 in the pen, as it is held horizontal ; there is a slight but rapid and constant projection 

 and retraction of the tubes, and the liquor disappears very fast, perhaps by capillary 

 attraction, perhaps by a sort of pumping, certainly not by licking. * 



CHARACTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS. 



Art thou a bird, a bee, or butterfly ? 

 "Each and all three — a bird in shape am I, 

 A bee collecting sweets from bloom to bloom, 

 A butterfly in brilliancy of plume." 



— Montgomery. 



Humming Birds may be distinguished from all other birds by the 

 structure of the wing alone, which is entirely peculiar in the excessive 

 development of the primary and abbreviation of the secondary quills, 

 the latter only six in number and not extending beyond the tip of the 

 shortest (innermost) primary, and shorter than the longest primary 

 coverts. The primaries are always ten in number, of which the first is 

 longest, or at least equal to the longest, except in a single monotypic 

 genus (Aithurus), and constitute much the greater part of the wing. 

 The bill and tongue are also peculiar iu their structure. The former is 



* See, however, what Mr. W. H. Ballou says, on p. 287. 

 H. Mis. 129, pt. 2 19 



