if
on another chase and another tussle. I am persuaded that these were hostile encounters : for one seemed
evidently afraid o f the other, fleeing when the other pursued, though his indomitable spirit would prompt
the chirp o f defiance; and when resting after a battle, I noticed that this one held his beak open as if panting.
Sometimes they would suspend hostilities to suck a few blossoms; but mutual proximity was sure to bring
them on again, with the same result. In their tortuous and rapid evolutions, the light from their ruby necks
would occasionally flash in the sun with gem-like radiance; and, as they now and then hovered motionless, the
broadly-expanded tail, the outer feathers o f which are crimson-purple, but when intercepting the sun’s rays
transmit orange-coloured light, added much to their beauty. A little Banana Quit (Certhiola fla v e o la ), that
was peeping among the blossoms in his own quiet way, seemed now and then to look with surprise on the
combatants; but when the one had driven his rival to a longer distance than usual, the victor set upon the
unoffending Quit, who soon yielded the point, and retired, humbly enough, to a neighbouring tree. The
war (for it was a thorough campaign, a regular succession o f battles) lasted fully an hour, and then I was
called away from the post o f observation. Both o f the Humming-Birds appeared to be males.”
“ All the Humming-Birds have more or less the habit, when in flight, o f pausing in the air, and throwing
the body and tail into rapid and odd contortions. This is most observable in the Polytmus, from the effect
that such motions have on the long feathers o f the tail. That the object o f these quick turns is the capture
of insects I am sure, having watched one thus engaged pretty close to me. I observed it carefully, and
distinctly saw the minute flies in the air which it pursued and caught, and heard repeatedly the snapping
of the beak. My presence scarcely disturbed it, if at all.”
In some notes on the ‘ Habits o f the Humming-Birds of the Amazon,’ kindly furnished me by Mr. Wallace,
that gentleman says—
“ The great number o f species that frequent flowers, do so, I am convinced, for the small insects found
there, and not for the nectar. In dozens, and perhaps hundreds, o f common flower-frequenting species
which I have examined, the crop, stomach, and intestines have been entirely filled with minute beetles,
bees, ants, and spiders, which abound in most flowers in South America. Very rarely, indeed, have I found
a trace o f honey or of any liquid in the crop or stomach. The flowers they most frequent are the various
species o f In g a , and the papilionaceous flowers o f many large forest-trees. I have never seen them at the
Bignonias or any flowers but those which grow in large masses covering a whole tree or shrub, as they
visit perhaps a hundred flowers in a minute and never stop at a single one. The little Emerald Hummer
I have seen in gardens and at the common orange, Asclepias, which often covers large spaces o f waste
ground in the tropics. But there are many, such as Phaethornis E rem ita , and some larger allied species,
which I have never seen at flowers. These inhabit the gloomy forest-shades, where they dart about among
the foliage, and I have distinctly observed them visit in rapid succession every leaf on a branch, balancing
themselves vertically in the air, passing their beak closely over the under surface o f each leaf, and thus
capturing, no doubt, any small insects that may be upon them. While doing this the two long feathers of
their tail have a vibrating motion, serving apparently as a rudder to assist them in performing the delicate
operation. I have seen others searching up and down stems and dead sticks in the same manner, every
now and then picking off something, exactly as a Bush-strike or a Tree-creeper does, with this exception,
that the Humming-Bird is constantly on the wing. They also capture insects in the true Fissirostral manner,
How often may they be seen perched on the dead twig o f a lofty tree— the same station that is chosen by
the tyrant Flycatchers and the Jacamars, and from which, like those birds, they dart off a short distance
and, after a few whirls and balancings, return to the identical twig they had left. In the evening, too, just
after sunset, when the Goat-suckers are beginning their search after insects over the rivers, I have seen
Humming-Birds' come out of the forest and remain a long time on the wing—now stationary, now darting
about with the greatest rapidity, imitating in a limited space the varied evolutions of their companions the
Goat-suckers, and evidently for the same end and purpose.
“ Many naturalists have noticed this habit of feeding on insects, but have generally considered it as the
exception, whereas I am inclined to think it is the rule. The frequenting of flowers seems to me only one
o f the many ways by which they are enabled to procure their insect-food.”
“ Wilson, Audubon, Mr. Gosse, and several others gifted with the ‘ pen of a ready writer,” ’ says
Mr. Alfred Newton, “ have so fully described, as far as words will admit, the habits of different members
o f the family Trochilidas, that it is unnecessary to say much upon this score. Their appearance is so
entirely unlike that o f any other birds that it is hopeless to attempt in any way to bring a just conception
o f it to the ideas o f those who have not crossed the Atlantic; and even the comparison so often made
between them and the Sphingidce, though doubtless in the main true, is much to the advantage o f the latter.
One is admiring the clustering stars o f a scarlet Cordia, the snowy cornucopias o f a Portlandia, or some
other brilliant and beautiful flower, when between the blossom and one’s eye suddenly appears a small dark
object, suspended as it were between four short black threads meeting each other in a cross. For an instant
it shows in front o f the flower; an instant more, it steadies itself, and one perceives the space between each
pair of threads occupied by a grey film ; again another instant, and, emitting a momentary flash of emerald
and sapphire light, it is vanishiug, lessening in the distance, as it shoots away, to a speck that the eye cannot
take note of,—and all this so rapidly that the word on one’s lips is still unspoken, scarcely the thought in
one’s mind changed. It was a bold man or an ignorant one who first ventured to depict Humming-Birds
flying; but it cannot be denied that representations of them in that attitude are often o f special use to the
ornithologist. The peculiar action o f one, and probably of many or all other, species of the family is such,
that at times, in flying, it makes the wings almost meet, both in front and behind, at each vibration.
Thus, when a bird chances to enter a room, it will generally go buzzing along the cornice: standing beneath
where it is, one will find that the axis o f the body is vertical, and each wing is describing a nearly perfect
semicircle. As might be expected, the pectoral muscles are very large ; indeed the sternum o f this bird is
a good deal bigger than that o f the common Chimuey-Swallow (Hirundo rustica, L.). But the extraordinary
rapidity with which the vibrations are effected seems to be chiefly caused by these powerful muscles acting
on the very short wing-bones, which are not half the length o f the same parts in the Swallow; and
accordingly, great as this alar action is, and in spite of the contrary opinion entertained by Mr. Gosse (Nat.
Sojourn in Jamaica, p. 240), it is yet sometimes wanting in power, owing doubtless to the disadvantageous
leverage thus obtained; and the old authors must be credited who speak o f cobwebs catching Humming-
Birds.
“ On the 3rd o f May, 1857, a bird of this species ” (Eulampis chhrolasmus, Gould) “ dew into the room
where I was sitting, and, after fluttering for some minutes against the ceiling, came in contact with a
deserted spider’s web, in which it got entangled and remained suspended and perfectly helpless for more
than a minute, when by a violen effort it freed itself. I soon after caught it, still having fragments of the
web on its head, neck, and wings; and I feel pretty sure that had this web been inhabited and in good repair,
instead of being deserted and dilapidated, the bird would never have escaped."
In his ‘ Notes on the Humming-Birds of Guatemala,’ Mr. Salvin says, “ During the months of August and