IV 
HUMMING-BIRDS 
319 
the flowers seriatim, but skip about from one part of the tree 
to another in the most capricious way. Mr. Belt remarks on 
the excessive rapidity of the flight of the humming-bird giving 
it a sense of security from danger, so that it will approach a 
person nearer than any other bird, often hovering within two 
or three yards (or even one or two feet) of one’s face. He 
watched them bathing in a small pool in the forest, hovering 
over the water, turning from side to side by quick jerks of 
the tail; now showing a throat of gleaming emerald, now 
shoulders of glistening amethyst; then darting beneath the 
water, and rising instantly, throw off a shower of spray from 
its quivering wings, and again fly up to an overhanging 
bough and commence to preen its feathers. All humming- 
birds bathe on the wing, and generally take three or four 
dips, hovering between times about three or four inches 
above the surface. Mr. Belt also remarks on the immense 
numbers of humming-birds in the forests, and the great 
difficulty of seeing them; and his conclusion is, that in the 
part of Nicaragua where he was living they equalled in 
number all the rest of the birds together, if they did not 
greatly exceed them. 
The extreme pugnacity of humming-birds has been noticed 
by all observers. Mr. Gosse describes two meeting and 
chasing each other through the labyrinths of twigs and 
flowers till, an opportunity occurring, the one would dart 
with seeming fury upon the other, and then, with a loud 
rustling of their wings, they would twirl together, round and 
round, till they nearly came to the earth. Then they parted, 
and after a time another tussle took place. Two of the same 
species can hardly meet without an encounter, while in many 
cases distinct species attack each other with equal fury. Mr. 
Salvin describes the splendid Eugenes fulgens attacking two 
other species with as much ferocity as its own fellows. 
One will knock another off its perch, and the two will 
go fighting and screaming away at a pace hardly to be 
followed by the eye. Audubon says they attack any other 
birds that approach them, and think nothing of assaulting 
tyrant -shrikes and even birds of prey that come too near 
their home. 
