RUBY-THROATED HUMMING BIRD. 
459 
seat, though no more than three or four feet from the observer. 
In a single week the young are on the wing, and in this situa- 
tion still continue to be fed with their nursing sweets by the 
assiduous parents. 
Creatures of such delicacy and uncommon circumstances, 
the wondrous sports of Nature, everything appears provided 
for the security of their existence ; the brood are introduced 
to life in the warmest season of the year ; variation of tempera- 
ture beyond a certain medium would prove destructive to 
these exquisite forms. The ardent heats of America have 
alone afforded them support ; no region so cool as the United 
States produces a set of feathered beings so delicate and 
tender ; and, consequently, any sudden extremes, by produ- 
cing chill and famine, are fatal to our Humming Birds. In the 
remarkably wet summer of 1831 very few of the young were 
raised in New England. In other seasons they comparatively 
swarm, and the numerous and almost gregarious young are 
then seen, till the close of September, eagerly engaged in sip- 
ping the nectar from various showy and tubular flowers, partic- 
ularly those of the trumpet Bignonia and wild balsam, with 
many other conspicuous productions of the fields and gardens. 
Sometimes they may also be seen collecting dimunitive in- 
sects, or juices from the tender shoots of the pine-tree. While 
thus engaged in strife and employment, the scene is peculiarly 
amusing. Approaching a flower, and vibrating on the wing 
before it, with the rapidity of lightning the long, cleft, and 
tubular tongue is exerted to pump out the sweets, while the 
buzzing or humming of the wings reminds us of the approach 
of some larger sphinx or droning bee. No other sound or 
sono- is uttered, except occasionally a slender chirp while flit- 
ting from a flower, until some rival bird too nearly approaches 
the same plant ; a quick, faint, and petulant squeak is then 
uttered, as the little glowing antagonists glide up in swift and 
angry gyrations into the air. The action at the same time is so 
sudden, and the flight so rapid, that the whole are only traced 
for an instant, like a gray line in the air. Sometimes, without 
any apparent provocation, the little pugnacious vixen will, for 
