RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD. 
589 
grant Gelsemium (Carolina Jessamine), the twin-leaved 
Bignonia,* and the white-robed Mylocarium , f with a host 
of daily expanding flowers, invite our little sylvan guest 
to the retreats he had reluctantly forsaken. Desultory 
in his movements, roving only through the region of 
blooming sweets, his visits to the Northern States are de- 
layed to the month of May. Still later, as if determined 
that no flower shall “ blush unseen, or waste its sweet- 
ness on the desert air, ” our little sylph, on wings as 
rapid as the wind, at once launches without hesitation 
into the flowery wilderness which borders on the arctic 
circle. 
The first cares of the little busy pair are now bestowed 
on their expected progeny. This instinct alone pro- 
pelled them from their hybernal retreat within the tropics ; 
strangers amidst their numerous and brilliant tribe, they 
only seek a transient asylum in the milder regions of their 
race. With the earliest dawn of the northern spring, 
in pairs, as it were with the celerity of thought, they 
dart, at intervals, through the dividing space, till they 
again arrive in the genial and more happy regions of 
of their birth. The enraptured male is now assiduous 
in attention to his mate ; forgetful of selfish wants, he 
feeds his companion with nectared sweets ; and jealous of 
danger and interruption to the sole companion of his de- 
lights, he often almost seeks a quarrel with the giant 
birds which surround him ; he attacks even the King- 
Bird, and drives the gliding Martin to the retreat of his 
box. The puny nest is now prepared in the long accus- 
tomed orchard or neighbouring forest. It is concealed 
by an artful imitation of the mossy branch to which it is 
firmly attached and incorporated. Bluish-grey lichens, 
agglutinated by saliva, and matched with surrounding 
* Bignonia capreolata. f Called the Buck- wheat tree. 
50 
