Most of the humming-birds found on the banks of the Amazon belong to the
genus Phaethornis; remarkable for their long, graduated tails, the
central feathers of which greatly exceed the others. Their nests are
curious and beautiful, being formed in a long funnel-like shape,
tapering below to a slender point. They are woven with great delicacy,
and attached to some twig, or hanging leaf, by means of spider's webs.
They are lined with a soft silky cotton fibre; and composed, externally,
of a woolly kind of furze, bound together with which appears also to be
spider's web.
One of the largest is the Eupetomena macroura, with a swallow tail, and
a livery of brilliant emerald-green and steel blue. When feeding, it
remains a shorter time than usual poised in the air before the flowers,
frequently perching, and occasionally darting after small insects flying
by.
When the orange-trees become fully covered with flowers, the
humming-birds appear in vast numbers. Their motions are totally unlike
those of other birds. So quickly do they dart backwards and forwards,
that the eye can hardly follow them. Even when poising themselves
before a flower, with such inconceivable rapidity do their wings move,
that even then their bright colours are scarcely perceptible; and anon
they shoot off to sip the nectar from another cup. Unlike the
systematic way in which bees proceed, they seem to delight in darting,
now in one direction, now in the other; now for a moment they perch on a
spray, probing, as they sit, the flowers nearest to them; then again
they fly off, in their eccentric course, to another spot.
"Wherever a creeping vine opens its fragrant cluster, or wherever a
flower blooms, may these little things be seen," writes Edwards, in his
usual graphic way; "in the garden, or in the woods, over the water,
everywhere, they are darting about, of all sizes, from one that might
easily be mistaken for a different variety of bird, to the tiny hermit--
T. Rufigaster, whose body is not half the size of the bee's--buzzing
about. Sometimes they are seen chasing each other, in sport, with a
rapidity of flight and intricacy of path the eye is puzzled to follow.
Again, circling round and round, they rise high in mid-air, and then
dart off like light to some distant attraction. Perched upon a little
twig, they smooth their plumes, and seem to delight in their dazzling
hues; then, starting off leisurely, they skim along, stopping
capriciously to kiss the coquetting flowerets. Often two meet in
mid-air and furiously fight, their crests, and the feathers upon their
throats, all erected and blazing, and altogether pictures of the most
violent rage. Several times we saw them battling with large black bees
who frequent the same flowers, and may be seen often to interfere
provokingly. Like lightning our little heroes would come down, but the
coat of shining mail would ward off their furious strokes. Again and
again would they renew the attack, until their anger had expended itself
by its own fury, or until the apathetic bee, once roused, had put forth
powers which drove the invaders from the field."
Bates remarks, that he several times shot, by mistake, a humming-bird
hawk-moth, instead of a bird. This moth (Macroglossa Titan) is smaller
than humming-birds generally are, but its manner of flight, and the way
it poises itself before the flower whilst probing it with its proboscis,
are precisely like the same actions of humming-birds. This resemblance
has attracted the notice of the natives, who firmly believe that one is
transmutable into the other. The resemblance between this hawk-moth and
the humming-bird is certainly very curious, and strikes one, even when
both are examined in the hand. Holding them sideways, the shape of the
head and position of the eyes in the moth are seen to be nearly the same
as in the bird, the extended proboscis representing the long beak. At
the tip of the moth's body there is a brush of long hair-scales,
resembling feathers, which, being expanded, looks very much like a
bird's tail; but, of course, all these points of resemblance are merely
superficial.
He one day saw a little pigmy, belonging to the genus Phaethornis, in
the act of washing itself in a brook. It was perched on a thin branch,
whose end was under water. It dipped itself, then fluttered its wings,
and plumed its feathers, and seemed thoroughly to enjoy itself alone in
the shady nook which it had chosen. "There is no need for poets to
invent," he adds, "while nature furnishes us with such marvellous little
sprites ready to hand."
But these beautiful little creatures require a separate description.