_Mellisuga humilis._—+Mihi.+
_Ornismya minima_, +Less.+ Ois. M. 79. (nec auct.)
[25] Male. Length 2⁷⁄₁₀ inches, expanse 3¹⁄₂, flexure 1¹⁄₂, rictus
⁵⁄₁₀, (nearly,) tail ⁸⁄₁₀, tarsus rather above ¹⁄₁₀, middle toe
¹⁄₁₀, claw ¹⁄₁₀.
Irides, beak, and feet black. Whole upper parts metallic-green;
wings purplish-black; tail deep-black; chin and throat, white
speckled with black; breast white; sides metallic-green; belly
whitish, each feather tipped with green; vent white; under
tail-coverts white, tipped faintly with green.
Female. Rather less; of a yellower green above, which descends
half-way down upon the tail. Whole under parts pure white,
unspotted, untinged with green; tail-feathers, except the
uropygials, tipped with white.
Intestine 1⁹⁄₁₀ inch: no cæca.
That this is the species of which M. Lesson has figured the female
in his Oiseaux Mouches, pl. 79, there can be no doubt. His figure is
a very fair representation; though it is too slender, and the white
mark behind the eye I cannot find: this, however, I do not wonder
at, if, as is most probable, his figure was taken from a dried
specimen. He says, “it is beyond contradiction the smallest of all
those yet known, and without doubt is the ‘very little Humming-bird’
of voyagers. Its length is 2 inches and 4 lines.” But that it is the
_Trochilus minimus_ of Linnæus, Buffon, Edwards, and Latham, who can
imagine, that puts any faith in testimony? Edwards’ figure, which
is said to be “of its natural bigness,” measures 1⁴⁄₁₀ inch; that
in the Pl. Enl. 276. fig. 1, is about 1³⁄₁₀; and Latham, who says
expressly, “_I have received_ this from Jamaica,” gives its total
length 1¹⁄₄ inch, and that of its beak, 3¹⁄₂ lines. It is true the
description as to colouring, &c., bears a very close resemblance to
mine, but no one accustomed to the precision of science could mistake
2¹⁄₂ inches for 1¹⁄₄![26] Neither is it possible that these minute
specimens can be the _young_ of the present species; for nestling
Humming-birds, even when not half-fledged, are very little less in
size than the adult, and, when able to leave the nest, are scarcely
to be distinguished as to dimensions. Moreover, having reared this
species I can speak positively. But Mr. Bullock records having obtained
in Jamaica a species whose body was but half an inch in length; this
specimen is understood to have become the possession of the late
George Loddiges, Esq., and I have been assured by an ornithological
friend, who has seen it, that it is no larger than the species of
the old naturalists. Under these considerations, Lesson’s name being
manifestly misapplied, I have ventured to give to the present species,
a new appellation, derived from its habit of buzzing over the low
herbaceous plants of pastures, which our other species do not. The
West Indian vervain (_Stachytarpheta_) is one of the most common weeds
in neglected pastures, shooting up everywhere its slender columns,
set round with blue flowers, to the height of a foot. About these our
little Humming-bird is abundant during the summer months, probing the
azure blossoms a few inches from the ground. It visits the spikes in
succession, flitting from one to another, exactly in the manner of the
honey-bee, and with the same business-like industry and application.
In the winter, the abundance of other flowers and the paucity of
vervain-blossoms, induce its attentions to the hedgerows and woods.
[26] Yet Sloane describes his “Least Humming-bird,” (Jam. 308) as
“about 1¹⁄₄ inch long, from the end of the bill to that of the
tail,” while of his figure the bill alone measures ³⁄₄ inch, and
the whole bird 2⁵⁄₈. As the worthy Doctor, however, is said to
have taken his admeasurements with his _thumb-nail_, this slight
variation is the less surprising.
I have sometimes watched, with much delight, the evolutions of this
little species at the moringa tree already spoken of. When only one is
present, he pursues the round of the blossoms soberly enough, sucking
as he goes, and now and anon sitting quietly on a twig. But if two are
about the tree, one will fly off, and, suspending 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 a strong rushing
of wings, perhaps for five hundred feet. Then they separate, and
each shoots diagonally towards the ground, like a ball from a rifle,
and wheeling round, comes up to the blossoms again, and sucks, and
sucks, as if it had not moved away at all. Frequently one alone will
mount in this manner, or dart on invisible wing diagonally upward,
looking exactly like a humble-bee. Indeed, 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 the form of one of these tropic gems, painted against
the sky. I have observed all our three species at one time engaged in
sucking the blossoms of the moringa at Content; and have noticed that
whereas Polytmus and Mango expand and depress the tail, when hovering
before flowers, Humilis, on the contrary, for the most part, _erects_
the tail; but not invariably.
The present is the only Humming-bird that I am acquainted with, that
has a real song. Soon after sunrise in the spring months, it is fond
of sitting on the topmost twig of some mango or orange tree, where it
warbles, in a very weak but very sweet tone, a continuous melody, for
ten minutes at a time: it has little variety. The others have only a
pertinacious chirping.
The season of nidification seems to be as protracted in this, as in
the former species; nor does the structure itself differ, except in
being of about half the size. The small bushes of _Lantana_, so common
by roadsides, and always covered with orange and yellow blossom, are
favourite situations for the domestic economy of this minim bird. The
smooth twigs of the bamboo also are not unfrequently chosen. It is
not an uncommon thing in Jamaica, for a road up a mountain to be cut
in zig-zag terraces to diminish the steepness; and, to prevent the
lower side of such a road from crumbling away, stems of green bamboo
are cut and laid in a shallow trench along the edge. Shoots spring from
every joint, and presently a close row of living palisades are growing
along the margin of the road, whose roots, as they spread, effectually
bind together the mountain-side, and make the terrace perpetual;
while, as they increase in height and thickness, they throw their
gracefully-waving tufts over the way, like gigantic ostrich plumes,
affording most refreshing shadow from the heat. Such a _bamboo-walk_,
as it is called, winds up the steep side of Grand Vale mountain in
St. Elizabeth’s, and here the nests of the Vervain Humming-bird are
frequently met with.
One day in June, being up this road, I found two nests attached to
twigs of bamboo, and one just commenced. Two parallel twigs were
connected together by spiders’ webs, profusely but irregularly
stretched across, and these held a layer of silk-cotton, which just
filled up the space (about an inch square) between them. This was the
base. The others were complete cups of silk-cotton exceedingly compact
and neat, ornamented outside with bits of grey lichen, stuck about.
Usually the nest is placed on a joint of a bamboo branch, and the
diverging twigs are embraced by the base. The nest is about the size of
half a walnut-shell, if divided not lengthwise, but transversely. To
see the bird sitting in this tiny structure is amusing. The head and
tail are both excluded, the latter erect like a wren’s: and the bright
eyes glance in every direction. One of these contained two eggs, the
other a single young nearly fledged, which, with the nest, I carried to
Content to rear.
It is interesting to observe the cleanliness of animals; the dung of
young birds would greatly inconvenience them in the nest, and probably
cause disease; it is therefore wisely ordained that there should be
some mode of getting rid of it. Swallows carry out the excrement of
their young in their beaks; and this they are able to do, as at that
early season it is enclosed in a tenacious jelly. I observed with
admiration, and with adoration, of the tender mercy of God in directing
such minutiæ as these, for the comfort of His creatures, that this
little Humming-bird, while I was carrying it, elevating its body above
the edge of the nest, in the bottom of which it ordinarily lay, ejected
the alvine discharge in a forcible jet, to the distance of several feet.
This little nestling I attempted to rear, and had every prospect of
succeeding, for it eagerly received the juice of sugar-cane, which I
administered to it in a small quill, many times in the day, sometimes
adding small insects, as in a former case. But on the third day I was
necessitated to return to Bluefields, and rode fifteen miles with the
bird in my hand, enclosed in an open box. I took every care of it; but
whether from too long fasting, or from the shaking, or exposure to the
sun, I know not, but it was dying when I arrived, and a few minutes
put an end to its sufferings and my expectations.
Several times I have enclosed a nest of eggs in a gauzed cage, with
the dam, taken in the act of sitting; but in no case did she survive
twenty-four hours’ confinement, or take the slightest notice of her
nest. When engaged in the attempt to domesticate a colony of Polytmus,
an opportunity offered to add this minute species to my aviary. For at
that time two large tamarind-trees very near the house were in full
blossom, and round them the Vervain Humming-bird was swarming. I never
saw so many of this tribe at once; they flocked together, as Sam truly
observed, “like bees,” and the air resounded with their humming, as if
in the neighbourhood of a hive. We caught several with the net, but
could make nothing of them; they were indomitably timid. When turned
into the room, they shot away into the loftiest angle of the ceiling,
and there hovered motionless, or sometimes slowly turning as if on
a pivot, their wings all the time vibrating with such extraordinary
velocity as to be visible only as a semicircular film on each side. The
fact that the extent of the vibration reached 180°, (or so nearly that
it seemed to me such,) shews the immense power of the small muscles
by which the wings are put in motion. Neither of our other species
approaches either the rapidity or extent of this oscillation; and hence
with this bird alone does the sound produced by the vibration of the
wings acquire the sharpness of an insect’s hum. The noise produced by
the hovering of Polytmus is a whirring exactly like that of a wheel
put into rapid revolution by machinery; that of Humilis is a hum, like
that of a large bee.
The spirit of curiosity is manifested by this little bird as well as
by the larger species. When struck at, it will return in a moment,
and peep into the net, or hover just in front of one’s face. The
stories told of Humming-birds attacking men, and striking at the eyes
with their needle-like bills, originated, I have no doubt, in the
exaggeration of fear, misinterpreting this innocent curiosity.
+Fam.+—CERTHIADÆ.—(_The Creepers._)