Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/58

 50 HUMMING BIRD rooms and conservatories for months, feeding on sugar or honey and water and the insects attracted by these, and have become so tame as to take their sweetened fluids from the end of the finger. They are incidentally honey eat- ers, but essentially insectivorous ; their barbed and viscid tongue is admirably adapted for drawing insects from the depths of tubular flowers, over which they delight to hover. The family of trochilidce may be recognized by their diminutive size, gorgeous plumage, long, slen- der, and acute bill, but little cleft at the base, and peculiar tongue ; the species are very nu- merous, probably as many as 400, some of which have a very limited range. The bill when closed forms a tube, through which the long, divided, and thread-like tongue may be protruded into deep flowers; there are no bristly feathers around its base, as in birds which catch insects on the wing ; the tongue has its cornua elongated backward, passing around the back to the top of the skull, as in woodpeckers; the wings are long and falci- form, with very strong shafts, the first quill of the ten the longest; the secondaries usually six ; the tail is of various forms, but always strong, and important in directing the flight ; the tarsi short and weak ; the toes long and slender, and capable of sustaining them in a hanging position, as is known from their be- ing not unfrequently found hanging dead from branches in the autumn after a sudden cold change in the weather. The subfamily gry- pina have the bill slightly curved, and the tail long, broad, and wedge-shaped; of these Ruff-necked Humming Bird (Selasphorus rnftisl 1. Male. 2. Female. the genus phatornis (Swains.) is found in the warmer parts of South America, and is nu- merous in species; oreotrochihis (Gould) in- habits the mountains of the western side of South America immediately beneath the line of perpetual snow, feeding upon the small he- mipterous insects which resort to the flowers ; gryput (Spix) is found in the neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. The ruff-necked humming bird (selatphorus riifui, Swains.), of the western Anna Humming Bird (Atthis Anna). 1. Male. 2. Female. parts of North America, is about 3J in. long, with a wedge-shaped tail; in the male the upper parts, lower tail coverts, and tail are cinnamon-colored, the latter edged or streaked with purplish brown ; throat coppery red, with a ruff, and below it a white collar ; in the fe- male the back is greenish, and the metallic reflections are less brilliant. The Anna hum- ming bird (Atthis Anna, Reich.) is somewhat larger, also inhabiting California and Mexico; Mango Humming Bird (Lampoon's mango). 1. Male. 2. Female. the tail is deeply forked ; top of head, throat, and ruff metallic red, with purple reflections ; rest of upper parts and band on breast green ; tail purplish brown ; in the female the tail is somewhat rounded, barred with black and