24 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
The moth in question has a rival in the person of master hum- 
ming bird, and so much alike are these to the unobserving ob- 
server that only a dancing, swaying, hazy, vanishing blur is seen 
in either case against the indistinct background of the honeysuckle 
hedge in the deepening twilight. The humming bird is less easy 
to study, and to get close to his fast fluttering wings is a rarity in- 
deed. ^ As soon as the busy bird is once recognized by his long, 
needle-shaped bill, bright, iridescent plumage, exceedingly quick, 
darting motions and characteristic humming of the wings he is not 
confounded with the sluggard of a moth or any other creature. 
The bird, like the insect, with which he might weigh in the same 
notch, pauses in the air before the evening blossom and quickly 
sips the nectar without indulging in the climbing method of 
alighting as is in vogue with the heavy, short-winged bumble bee. 
The bird makes a cleaner job of it than the moth in every way. 
His eye may be keener sighted and his body more submissive to 
his will. The bill may be a better instrument than the proboscis 
for extracting the honey. Who can tell whether the blossom and 
the bird are made for each other's best interests, and the moth is 
an interloper. 
Those who are familiar with the honeysuckle blooms are aware 
that upon a vine some are white and others are creamy in color, 
then a light yellow-orange, and lastly a darker shade of the two 
neighboring colors as the flowers hang collapsed upon the short 
stems. The rapidity with which these blossoms pass these stages 
has been a matter of observation and surprise. Each of these 
branches usually has upon an average six successive nodes that are 
to bear blossoms, the series being preceded by a few neutral nodes 
and followed by an indefinite number that are entirely vegetative. 
The blooming of a series represented by any stem is usually com- 
passed by a week or at most ten days — the rapidity seeming to de- 
pend upon the individual peculiarities of the plant or some circum- 
stances of nourishment and the weather. During the period of 
watching there was a rainy day and night, and upon the interven- 
ing evening there was but little show of bloom and a noticeable 
absence of the characteristic fragrance, and of course of the insect 
