MAY. 
163 
F. — No, no : stay where you are^ and remain quite stilly 
and talk in a low voice ; for on the slightest alarm, and 
their brilliant little eyes are glancing in every direction, they 
shoot off with the straightness and speed of an arrow. See 
how they hover on the wing, in front of the blossoms, quite 
stationary, while their long tongue is inserted, but their 
wings vibrating so rapidly as to be only visible as an indis- 
tinct cloud on each side. 
C. — One of them has suddenly vanished, but I did not 
see him fly, though I was watching him. 
F. — He has gone only about a yard : you may see him 
stationary again to the right of where he was before. These 
starts are so sudden and so rapid, that they are often lost to 
the sight. 
C — How very little and how very beautiful ! the body 
glitters in the sun with green and gold, and the throat is 
just like a glowing coal of fire. Now they rest on a twig ; 
fone of them I perceive has not the brilliant throat of the 
other. 
jP. — That is the female ; in other respects her plumage 
is like that of the male. It is the Ruby-throated Humming- 
bird f Trochilus Colubris ), and is scattered over the whole 
of this continent, at least to the latitude of 57 degrees 
north. It is the only species of the genus found in North 
America, except a species (T, Rufus) which inhabits the 
coast of the Pacific, as far north as 61.° 
C. — Is it numerous here ? 
F. — Yes : in summer it is abundant ; frequenting our 
gardens, for the tubular flowers, which it probes with its long 
bill and tongue, sometimes hiding its head in the corolla, and 
sucking with so much indiscretion as to be approached, and 
taken in the hand. It is particularly fond of the deep crim- 
son flowers of the sweet-smelling Balm f Monarda Kalmi- 
anaj, and will return to these after a few moments, even if 
