388 BIRDS—TROCHILID A. 
TROCHILUS COLUBRIS Linnzeus. 
FRouby-throated Hummingbird. 
Trochilus colubris, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 164.—REapD, Proc. Phila. Acad. 
Nat. Sci., vi, 1853, 395.—KIRKPATRICK, Obio Farmer, ix, 1860, 163.—W HEATON, Ohio 
Agric. Rep. for 1860, 362; Reprint, 1361, 4; Food of Birds, ete., Ohio Agric. Rep. 
for 1874, 569; Reprint, 1875, 9.—LAaNGDoN, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 11; Revised 
List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 178; Reprint, 12. 
Hummingbird, BALLou, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 136. 
Trochilus colubris, LINNmUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 191. 
Male with the tail forked, its feathers all narrow and pointed; no scales on crown; 
metallic gorget reflecting ruby-red, etc.; above golden-green ; below white, the sides 
green; wings and tail dusky-purplish. The female lacking the gorget; the throat white; 
the tail somewhat double-rounded, with black bars, and the outer feathers white-tipped. 
Length, 34; wing, 13; bill, 2. 
Habitat, North America, east of the Rocky Mountains. North to 57° at least. South 
to Brazil. Cuba. 
Very common summer resident. Breeds. Arrivesin May and departs 
in October. The Hummingbird, so well-known as the smallest of all 
our birds, and whose iridescent plumage, peculiar structure, and swift 
flight seem to us to separate it from all other birds, is in Eastern North 
America, the only representative of a numerous family, confined to this 
continent, and most numerous in South America. About a dozen species 
are found in North America, all but the present confined to the region 
west of the Mississippi. 
The food of Hummingbirds consists for the most part of small insects 
which they obtain from the interior of deep flowers, and which are there 
secure from the pursuit of other birds. Their nearest relative, with us, is 
the Chimney Swift, and like that bird they take their food while on the 
wing. No object can be more graceful or beautiful than one of these 
birds poised in air, before a favorite flower, the body surrounded by the 
misty halo of their rapidly vibrating wings. Their flight is very swift, 
direct and prolonged, resembling that of an insect rather than a bird. 
In some locations, as a flowery woodland, or low bank of a stream where 
rank vegetation is blooming, they appear in flocks to feed both before 
and after the breeding season. 
The nest of the Hummingbird isa remarkably beautiful structure. It 
is placed on a horizontal limb of a forest tree, or in an orchard, and is 
composed of soft down from the stems of plants, covered artistically with 
bits of gray lichen from the trunks of trees. Seen in position, it resem- 
bles a moss covered knot. The eggs are two only, pure white, nearly 
spherical, and measure but .50 by .35. 
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