The GIANT HUMMING BIRD (_Patagona gigas_) is pale brown shaded with green
on the upper portions of the body; the wings are greyish yellow; the head,
upper breast, and back are marked with dark undulating lines; the wings
and tail-feathers are dark brown, the latter enlivened by a green gloss.
This species is two inches long.
The Giant Humming Bird inhabits the southern parts of Western America,
appearing also in the extreme south. During the course of its migrations
it has been met with at an altitude of from 12,000 to 14,000 feet above
the level of the sea.
"Like others of its family," says Darwin, "it moves from place to place
with a rapidity which may be compared to that of the syrphus among
dipterous insects, or sphinxes among moths; but whilst hovering over a
flower it flaps its wings with a very slow and powerful movement, totally
different from that vibrating one common to most of the species which
produces the humming noise. I never saw any other bird whose force of wing
appeared (as in a butterfly) so powerful in proportion to the weight of
its body. When hovering by a flower its tail is constantly expanded and
shut, like a fan, the body being kept in a nearly vertical position. This
action seems to steady and support the bird between the slow movements of
its wings."
[Illustration: THE GIANT HUMMING BIRD (_Patagona gigas_).]
"This largest of all Humming Birds," observes Gould, "is said to be a
bold and vigorous flier, to be quick in all its actions, and to pass from
flower to flower with the greatest rapidity; notwithstanding the breadth
and volume of its wings, which would seem to be far better adapted for
lengthened and continuous progress than for poising in the air, which the
bird is in the constant habit of doing while visiting, with little choice,
the summer flowers of the forest. It is stated that, unlike the other
members of the family, it may frequently be seen perched on some small
tree or shrub."
Mr. Cumming states that in Chili the _Patagona gigas_ is strictly
migratory; it arrives from the north in August, and after spending three
months in that country, during which time it breeds, returns to whence
it came. The nest is a somewhat large, cup-shaped structure, composed
of mosses, lichens, and similar materials, put together with cobwebs,
and placed in the fork of the branch of some tree or shrub, generally on
one overhanging a turbulent stream of water. It lays two eggs, which are
white, and about three-quarters of an inch from end to end.
[Illustration: THE SWORD-BILL HUMMING BIRD (_Docimastes ensifer_).]