WHITE-BOOTED RACKET TAIL.
COMMON TOPAZ HUMMING BIRD.
Mr. A. R. Wallace has written the following account of the habits of Humming birds on the River Amazon:—“The greater number of 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, of common flower-frequenting species which I have examined, the crop, stomach, and intestines have been filled with minute beetles, ants, and spiders, which abound in most flowers in South America. Very rarely indeed have I found a trace of honey or of any liquid in the crop or stomach. The flowers they most frequent are the various species of Inga and the papilionaceous flowers of 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 of waste ground in the tropics. But there are many, such as Phaëthornis eremita 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 of each leaf, and thus capturing, no doubt, any small insects that may be upon them. While doing this, the two long feathers of the tail have a vibrating motion, apparently serving 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 Shrike or Tree Creeper does, with this exception, that the Humming-bird is continually on the wing. They also capture insects in the true Fissirostral fashion. How often may they be seen perched on the dead twig of a lofty tree—the station that is chosen by the tyrant Flycatchers and the Jacamars—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 Goatsuckers 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 evolutions of their companions the Goatsuckers, and evidently for the same end and purpose.”
Wilson, the poet-naturalist, observes of the North American species as follows:—“Nature in every department of her works seems to delight in variety, and the present subject is almost as singular for its minuteness, beauty, want of song, and manner of feeding, as the Mocking Bird is for unrivalled excellence of note and plainness of plumage. This is one of the few birds that are universally beloved, and amidst the sweet dewy serenity of a summer’s morning his appearance amongst the arbours of honeysuckles and beds of flowers is truly interesting.
“‘When morning dawns, and the blest sun again
Lifts his red glories from the Eastern main,
Then through our woodbines, wet with glittering dews,
The flower-fed Humming bird his round pursues;