HUMMING-BIRDS. 
119 
of the tulip-tree to be meant, the question would be entirely set- 
tled to the satisfaction of author, reader, and humming-bird also, 
who is very partial to those handsome blossoms of his native 
v/oods. 
It is often supposed that our little friend seeks only the most 
fl agrant flowers ; the blossoms on the Western Prairies, those of 
Wisconsin at least, and probably others also, are said to have but 
little perfume, and it is' observed that the humming-bird is a 
stranger there, albeit those wilds are a perfect sea of flowers 
during the spring and summer months. But the amount of honey 
in a plant has nothing to do with its perfume, for we daily see 
the humming-birds neglecting the rose and the white lily, while 
many of their most favorite flowers, such as the scarlet honey- 
suckle, the columbine, the lychnis tribe, the trumpet flower, and 
speckled jewels, have no perfume at all. Other pet blossoms of 
theirs, however, are very fragrant, as the highly-scented Missouri 
currant, for instance, and the red clover, but their object seems 
to be quite independent of this particular quality in a plant. 
The fancy these little creatures have for perching on a dead 
twig is very marked ; you seldom see them alight elsewhere, and 
the fact that a leafless branch projects from a bush, seems enough 
to invite them to rest ; it was but yesterday we saw two males 
sitting upon the same dead branch of a honeysuckle beneath the 
window. And last summer, there chanced to be a little dead 
twig, at the highest point of a locust-tree, in sight from the house, 
which was a favorite perching spot of theirs for some weeks ; pos- 
sibly it was the same bird, or the same pair, who frequented it, 
but scarcely a day passed without a tiny little creature of the 
tribe being frequently seen there. Perhaps there may have been 
