24 
PICARIAN BIRDS. 
several minutes at a time. On such occasions I have never been able to find a 
female in the vicinity, and have come to the conclusion that it was sung for the 
individual’s own amusement. There is still another hummer-note—that of the 
chase. They are very fond of chasing one another, sometimes for sport, often for 
spite. This note also resembles the feeding-note, but is louder and possesses a 
chippering character, some¬ 
times almost like the sound 
produced by lightly and 
rapidly smacking the lips 
together. I can detect but 
little difference between the 
sexes, and it appears much 
the same whether the chase 
is in sport or anger. Further¬ 
more, it is often made by the 
pursued as well as by the 
pursuer. At such times I am 
always reminded of a lot of 
schoolboys playing ‘ tag.’ If 
a hummer is perched and a 
person passes near, it starts 
off, uttering a note similar to 
that made while feeding; 
but, should it be a female 
which you have frightened 
from her nest, she will go off 
silently.” Mr. Ridgway men¬ 
tions only two other records 
HUMMING-BIRD AND NEST. 
of the song: of the humming- 
birds, quoting Gosse, to the 
effect that the tiny mellisirga 
of Jamaica sings, for ten 
minutes at a time, a sweet 
but monotonous little song ; 
while De Oca has observed a 
similar fact with regard to 
the wedge-tailed sabre-wing, 
Mr. Ridgway adds that “ al¬ 
though the muffled buzzing or 
humming noise, which has given this family of birds its distinctive name, is the 
sound usually accompanying the flight of humming-birds, the males of some species 
accompany their flight by a most remarkable noise, of an entirely different character. 
While among the mountains of Utah, in 1869, the writer was for a long time 
mystified by a shrill screeching noise, something like that produced by a rapidly 
revolving circular saw when rubbed by a splinter. This noise was evidently in the 
air, but I could not trace its origin, until I discovered a humming-bird passing 
