Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/292

278 person. He comes so suddenly as to give no warning to the eye; we hear a buzz, see the bird near us stationary, his form distinct, and when he leaves, so quick and sudden is his flight, that the eye can scarcely trace his pathway. The muscles of his wings are more powerful and active, in proportion to his size, than those of any other bird, and the wings are very long and sharp. For this reason he can easily hover, apparently motionless, for any length of time, before a flower whose honey he wishes to obtain. He thus sips the nectar of one flower after another for hours in succession, without showing any signs of weariness, or disturbing in the least the most delicate blossom.



If any one wishes to observe these birds and their habits, let him, on a fine, pleasant morning, visit a cluster of gooseberry bushes when in bloom, of whose honey they are exceedingly fond, and he will probably find one or more of them quietly searching the flowers for food. If disturbed, he will frequently rise to a considerable height in an oblique direction, then dart down, almost with the velocity of a bullet, past the place of annoyance, and rise on the opposite side to an equal height; then return by reversing his course, and so repeat these sweeping movements, till he sufficiently expresses his disapprobation, drives away his adversary, or retires in disgust.

If two birds foraging come together, they usually fight; one drives the other away, and then goes on feeding as if nothing had happened. Mr. Gosse says: "If two vervain humming-birds are about the moringa-tree, one will fly off and suspend himself in the air a few yards distant, the other presently shoots off" to him; and then, without touching each other, they mount upward with strong, rushing wings, perhaps for 500 feet. They then separate, and each shoots diagonally toward the ground, like a ball from a rifle, and, wheeling round, comes