The Hon. Anthony Chaplin—Humming Birds



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at the tip. Moreover, in some species the edges of the mandibles are

smooth while in others again they are finely serrated. This extent of

divergence from the typical form is not found in the old-world honey-

suckers, the Nectariniidce and the Meliphagidce, and is only approached

by the South American Wood-hewers (. Dendrocolaptidce ), a point which

shows the very great antiquity of the family. There is no doubt that

the Sun-birds are meant to perform the same services in the natural

economy of the old world that the Humming Birds do in the new,

although the latter are so vastly more specialized.


New light has to a modest extent been thrown upon the Humming

Birds by their behaviour in captivity. We find that they are not

the uniform whole that the old writers would have us believe. For

example, the little Ruby and Topaz, represented in the plate,

is very much less intelligent than the still smaller White-throated

Sapphire or the Brazilian Emerald ; moreover it is less active and

more temperamental, while its vocal utterance, unlike theirs, is confined

to a short patterned squeak, such as is made by a badly-fitting door.


It has been said that the different species occasionally sleep hanging

head downwards like bats. This, I may say, is sometimes the case,

but is due to misfortune rather than to any particular intention on the

part of the bird. It so happens that, after an especially active period,

an individual will sometimes fall into a state of deep sleep “ from

which ”, as Gould says, “ it is not easily aroused ” ; if, at such a

moment, there comes a sudden strong gust of wind the bird will over¬

balance and remain hanging to its perch, in which unenviable position

it is obliged to exist until it has had time to regain its senses. I am

convinced that Humming Birds catch insects only in the air, and

spiders only as they dangle from a web. By experimenting I find

that all the individuals I have possessed are unable to pick any form

of insect or spider off a twig and that their tongues are incapable of

sucking up minute insects from flowers, unless it be that the honey

contains truly microscopic forms. Goss says his tame Polytmus in

Jamaica imbibed ants with the honey, but I feel that either he must

have failed to make a close enough observation or that his particular

species differs very considerably from those which I have been able

to experiment upon.



