Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/293

Rh up to the blossoms again, and sucks, as if it had not moved away at all. The figure of the smaller humming-birds on the wing, their rapidity, their arrowy course, and their whole manner of flight, are entirely those of an insect: and one, who has watched the flight of a large beetle, or bee, will have a very good idea of one of these tropic gems, painted against the sky." Again he says: "I once witnessed a combat between two mango humming-birds, which was prosecuted with much pertinacity, and protracted to an unusual length. They chased each other through the labyrinth of twigs and flowers till, an opportunity occurring, the one would dart with fury upon the other, and then, with a loud rustling of their wings, they would twirl together round and round, until they nearly came to earth. At length an encounter took place pretty close to me, and I perceived that the beak of the one grasped the beak of the other, and, thus fastened, both whirled round and round in their perpendicular descent, till, when very near the ground, they separated; and the one chased the other for about a hundred yards, and then returned in triumph to the tree.



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 now and then flash in the sun with gem-like radiance. The war lasted fully an hour, and then I was called away from the post of observation."

When these birds have nests, they defend them with great energy. They will attack and drive away any bird, however large, that disturbs them, or encroaches upon their territories. Wood says: "It has even been seen to attack the royal eagle itself, and to perch itself upon the head of its gigantic enemy, pecking away with hearty good-will, and scattering the eagle's feathers in a stream, as the affrighted