eS ee Db ee ok me a Ota Hating Ne Nnhng Mag hee Moe Pom eee Ra Be MoM dna Vem he Kade Ln iiattin Keitel a Gente 2th at eaten.” ole Palhintinlatn ive” Sa Pa Mn Bat mete PB ” Aye Se andi tec np! ey Se Net agate et at Meteo ne OP Pee ee ee ae See oe RO RAE On ee ee NN MT a rel earn inane res Ne Rete as = et Me at ae ah tall ena te eee Ge Pes Ne ag te ohn Pant Tete ate pn Man fon ae Mm, Ben frente Ne ies gh ALT one eA ESAT GET RS IT SURE EOE TAT Gi TAG bad Sata gS a a Ne OE IRR NRRL ER : Sse AEN Ra I OD Taga se 2 RD RICO a nae, Me fa) teeny, i | AMES? (om av =. 2 —_- » aE is i ] ROT E 75 Ver8 “ON mesh ie ¢ eB ae Sat by PN Etued . iP. sal Dnt Wee ha, « a As oy oF % f iI i F Sp He NES B ee Lit We ay Mer Ay, OM V4 Hig: (ear ee ey wo Vai, 4 Wh ty f ean! py) My Li i i mC a ie oe Ny i | ent. ve i) ne nh i Nie ie A i <2 -“~ SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. BY ROBERT RIDGWAY, Curator, Department of Lirds. GON (Enereg FLD 16 1gY¥4> ) Wee Yas From the Report of the National Museum for 1890, (with Plates I-XLVI). WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, 1892. THE HUMMING BIRDS. By RoperT RipGway. INTRODUCTION. Minutest of the feathered kind, Possessing every charm combin’d, Nature, in forming thee, design’d That thou shouldst be A proof within how little space She can comprise such perfect grace, Rendering thy lovely fairy race Beauty’s epitome. Thou burnished colors to bestow, Her pencil in the heavenly bow She dipp’d, and made thy plumes to glow With every hue. —CHARLOTTE SMITH. Of all the numerous groups .nto which the birds are divided there is none other so numerous in species, so varied in form, so brilliant in plumage, and so different from all others in their mode of life. Inhab- itants exclusively of the tropical and temperate portions of America, they constitute the most charming element in the wonderfully varied bird-life of the New World. Buffon considers the Humming Bird “of all animated beings . . . the most elegant in form and brilliant in color. The stones and metals polished by art are not comparable to this gem of nature. She has placed itin the order of birds, but among the tiniest of the race—maxime miranda in minimus; she has loaded it with all the gifts of which she has only given other birds ashare. Agility, rapidity, nimbleness, grace, and rich attire all belong to this little favorite. The emerald, the ruby, and the topaz glitter in its garb, which is never soiled with the dust of earth, for, leading an aérial life, it rarely touches the turf even for an instant. Always in the air, flying from flower to flower, it shares their freshness and their splendor, lives on their nectar, and only inhabits those climates in which they are unceasingly re- newed.” Audubon calls the Humming Bird a “ glittering fragment of _ the rainbow,” and asks: “Who, on seeing this lovely little creature mov- 253 254 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. ing on humming winglets through the air, suspended as if by magic in it, flitting from one flower to another, with motions as graceful as they are light and airy, pursuing its course and yielding new delights wher ever it is seen . . . would not pause, admire, and turn his mind with reverence toward the Almighty Creator, the wonders of whose hand we at every step discover, and of whose sublime conception we every- where observe the manifestations in his admirable system of creation ?” Buffon’s characterization, however, is somewhat inaccurate and slightly overdrawn, since nature has notendowed Humming Birds ‘‘ with all the gifts of which she has only given other birds a share,” the ab- sence of melodious voice being, as a rule, a conspicuous deficiency of the tribe, while the statement that they are “always in the air” is very inaccurate, Humming Birds requiring the same repose which other kinds find necessary. The author of that magnificent work, ‘‘A Monograph of the Trochi- lide ”—Mr. John Gould—in recounting his own experience with Hum- ming Birds, if less extravagant in his praise of them is no less en- thusiastic in his admiration. ‘That early impressions of the mind,” says he, ‘are vividly retained, while events of the day flit from our memory, must have been experienced by everyone. How vivid, then, is my recollection of the first Humming Bird which met my admiring gaze! With what delight did I examine its tiny body and feast my eyes on its glittering plumage! This early impression, I well remem- ber, gradually increased into an earnest desire to attain a more inti- mate acquaintance with the lovely group of birds to which it pertained, and was still further strengthened when an opportunity was afforded me of inspecting the, at that time, unique collection of the Trochilide formed by the late Mr. George Loddiges, of Hackney. This gentleman and myself were imbued with a kindred spirit in the love we both en- tertained for this family of living gems. To describe the feeling which animated us with regard to them is impossible. It can, in fact, only be realized by those who have made natural history a study, and who pursue the investigation of its charming mysteries with ardor and delight. That our enthusiasm and excitement with regard to most things become lessened, if not deadened, by time, particularly when we have acquired what we vainly consider a complete knowledge of the subject, is, I fear, too often the case with most of us; not so, how- ever, I believe, with those who take up the study of the family of Humming Birds. Certainly I can affirm that such is not the case with myself; for the pleasure which I experience on seeing a Humming Bird is as great at the present moment as when I first saw one. Dur- ing the first 20 years of my acquaintance with these wonderful works of creation my thoughts were often directed to them in the day, and my night dreams have not unfrequently carried me to their native forests in the distant country of America. ‘In passing through this world I have remarked that when inquirers THE HUMMING BIRDS. 255 of a strong will really set themselves to attain a definite object they generally accomplish it; and in myown case the time at length arrived when I was permitted to revel in the delight of seeing the Humming Birds in a state of nature, and to observe their habits in the woods and among the great flowering trees of the United States of America and in Canada.” It is not the naturalist alone, however, who has been attracted by the wonderful beauty of Humming Birds. The demand for them is great for purely ornamental purposes, and though this has vastly added to their destruction it has, as a fortunate recompense, enabled naturalists to become better acquainted with them, the immense numn- ber of specimens often contained in milliners’ and taxidermists’ stocks frequently yielding species which otherwise would scarcely have become known to science. ‘*‘ Both Frenchmen and Belgians,” says Mr: Gould, “have proceeded to South America to procure supplies of these birds, and dealers from those countries have established themselves in some of the cities of that part of the world for the like purpose. From Sta. Fé de Bogota alone many thousands of skins are annually sent to Lon- don and Paris, and sold as ornaments for the drawing-room and for scientific purposes. The Indians readily learn the art of skinning and preserving, and, as a certain amount of emolument attends the collect- ing of these objects, they often traverse great distances to p ocure them; districts more than a hundred miles on either side of Bogota are strictly searched ; and hence it is that from these places alone we receive not less than seventy species of these birds. In like manner the residents of many parts of Brazil employ their slaves in collecting, skinning, and preserving them for European markets, and many thou- sands are annually sent from Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Pernambuco. They also supply the inmates of the convents with many of the more richly volored species for the manufacture of artificial feather-flowers.” Vast numbers are also used by the natives of Mexico in producing the wonderful feather pictures for which the descendants of the Aztees are famous. Regarding the method by which specimens of these dimunitive birds are obtained by the collector, there exists much popular misunder- standing. ‘ Many really absurd statements,” says Mr. Gould, “have been made as to the means by which these birds are obtained for our cabinets. Itis most frequently asserted that they are shot with water or with sand. Now, so far as I am aware, these devices are never resorted to, but they are usually procured in the usual way, with Nos. 10 and 11 shot, those being the sizes best suited for the purpose. If smaller shot be used the plumage is very frequently so cut and damaged that the specimen is rendered of little or no value. By far the greater num- ber fall to the clay ball of the blowpipe, which the Indians, and in Some instances even Europeans, use with perfect certainty of aim. . . + In Brazil very fine nets are employed for this purpose, but how 256 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. this engine is employed I am unable to state. Unfortunately for me many specimens of the fine species Cometes sparganurus* in my posses- sion have been obtained by means of birdlime, and this is evidently the way in which these birds are captured in the neighborhood of Chuquisaca.” On account of the immense destruction of Humming Birds for the various ornamental purposes mentioned above, certain species are said to be on the verge of extinction. The wonder is that they are not long ago extinct, for the number of individuals which have been destroyed is Simply beyond computation. Three thousand skins of the Ruby-and- topaz Humming Bird (Chrysolampis moschitus) alone are said to have been shipped from a Brazilian port in a single consignment, while at a public sale of bird skins, held in London, March 21, 1888, more than 12,000 Humming Bird skins were disposed of! And in one week during the same year, there were sold at auction in London 400,000 Hum- ming Birds, and other birds trom North and South America, the former doubtless comprising a very considerable percentage of the whole num- ber.t Surely this stupendous slaughter foreshadows the speedy exter- mination of many species. If it does not, what a commentary on the amazing wealth of bird-life in the tropics of America ! EARLY HISTORY. Humming Birds being one of the special products of the New World, and consequently unknown to the ancients,t it of course follows that their literature is confined to the period following the discovery of America by Columbus. According to Lesson, “The first mention which is made of Humming Birds in the narratives of adventurers who proceeded to America, not with the design of studying its nat- ural productions, but for the discovery of gold, dates from 1558, and is to be found in Les Singularités de la France Antarctique (Brazil) of André Thevet and Jean de Léry, companions of La Villegaignon, who attempted in 1555 to found a French colony there; but these su- perficial accounts would not have unfolded their natural history had not the old naturalists who published their observations at the com- mencement of the seventeenth century taken care to make them better known; and we find some good accounts of them in the voluminous compilation of Nieremberg, in the collection of fragments from the great works of Hernandez or Fernandez, and in those of Piso. Ximenez, Acosta, Gomara, Maregrave, Garcilasso, and Dutertre often mention * For a description of this exquisitely beautiful bird see pages 308, 309. t This information is taken from The Auk, July, 1888, pp. 334, 335. ¢ It is true that the name of the typical genus (Trochilus), from which the name of the family (Trochilid@) is taken, is a classical Greek name, TpoyzAoc, trochilus or tro- chilos; but the bird so called by Herodotus was the Crocodile bird (Pluvianus egyp- tius), a small, ploverlike bird, which is said to feed upon the leeches which fasten themselves to the crocodile, even entering the monster’s open mouth to doso. THE HUMMING BIRDS. — 257 these birds, but their remarks are so superficial that it would be of little use to quote them now. Towards the end of the same century Sir Hans Sloane, Catesby, Edwards, Brown, Father Labat, Plumier, Louis Feuillée, and Rochefort gave tolerably complete figures and de- scriptions of some of the species, but it was not until the commence- ment of the eighteenth century that we became better acquainted with their natural history.” The naturalist-traveler Marcgrave minutely described several species of Humming Birds in his Natural History of Brazil,* published in Amsterdam in 1648, an entire chapter (Iv, pp. 196-198) being devoted to these birds under the heading of * Vari- ous species of Guainumbi” (Guainumbi variw species), Guainumbi or Guinambi being the Brazilian name for a Humming Bird, as are also, in the language of separate tribes, the terms Aratica and Arataratagu- acu. Humming Birds were also well described by César de Rochefort in his Histoire Naturelle et Morale des [les Antilles de Amérique (published in 1658), in which also they were allotted a special chapter (Article Xv, pp. 176-181). The earliest notice of the common Ruby-throated Humming Bird (Trochilus colubris) of eastern North America that I have been able to find is an extract from “a letter written from Boston in New England, October 26, 1670,” by John Winthrop, Esq., governor of Connecticut, to Francis Willughby, Esq., and published in the Philosophical Trans- actions, vol. VI (1671), p. 2223. It refers to a nest and two eggs, evi- dently a great curiosity at that time, as the article which follows will show: I send you withal a little Box, with a Curiosity init, which perhaps will be counted a trifle, yet tis rarely to be met with even here. It is the curiously contrived Nest of a Humming Bird,t so called from the humming noise it maketh whilst it flies. Tis an exceeding litle Bird, and only seen in Summer, and mostly in Gardens, flying from flower to flower, sucking Honey out of the flowers as a Bee doth; as it flieth not lighting on the flower, but hovering over it, sucking with its long Bill a sweet sub- stance. There are in the same Nest two of that Birds Eggs.! Whether they use to have more at once, I know not. I never saw but one of these Nests before ; and that was sent over formerly, with some other Rarities, but the Vessel miscarrying you received them not. Twenty-two years later, there appeared in the same journal (Philo- sophical Transactions, vol. xv, 1693, pp. 760-761), what seems to be the first special description of the bird itself, entitled “* The description of the American Tomineus or Humming Bird, communicated by Nehe- miah Grew, M. D. and Fellow of the Royal Society,” which also is worth quoting in full, the description having been written “by Mr. Hamersly, of Coventry :” * Historia Natvralis Brazili#, Auspicio et Beneficio Illustriss. I. Mavritii Com. Nassav. [etc.]. By Guilelmi Pisonis, M. D., and Georgi-Marcgravi de Liebstad. t Of which see a notable Description in the History of the Antiles l. 1,6. 15. art. 17, where it hath the name of Colibry. t These Eggs were so small, that being weighed by the Publisher, the one weighed but about 5 grains, the other3}: And the whcle Nest weighed no more than 24 grains. H. Mis. 129, pt. 2 17 258 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. There is in most sats of America a Bird called by the English the Hum Bird, by the Spaniard Tomineus. He is of the most shining green Color [sic], and very resplend- ent; the Colour [sic] doth something resemble some of our English Drake-heads. It doth inhabit some of the colder parts of America, as well asin the hotter. It is the least of all Birds that I have seen there or in England; her Leg and Foot together is but half an Inch, the other parts answerable, and the Trunk of her Body not an inch. I did weigh one (in those parts) as soon as ever it was kill’d, whose Weight was the tenth part of an Ounce Avoirdupoize, which I take to be about the weight of a Coined Six-pence. And I have weighed here in England a Tit-mouse (which I take to be the least Bird here), andit weighed above Two Shillings, and some Half a Crown. I saw one of these Nests made of Cotton-Wool, in form and bigness of the Thumb of a Man’s Glove, with the Taper end set downwards, wherin were two Eggs of the big- ness of a Pea, of oval Form. Who can but admire to see the whole Body, and ail the parts of a Bird folded up in an Egg, little bigger than a Pepper-Corn? They feed by thrusting their Bill and Tongue into the blossoms of Trees, and so suck the sweet Juice of Honey from them; and when he sucks he sits not, but bears up his Body with a hovering Motion of his Wings: But for the relation that he is a curious sing- ing Bird, I think it untrue. God in many of his Creatures is bountiful, yet not lav- ish ; for J did observe them several years, but never heard them sing; and the Pea- cock and Jay, though they be of a fine Plume, yet no Singers; and so I think this Bird is so beautiful to the Eye, as not to please the Ear. An Indian Saggamore is not in his full Pomp and Bravery without one of these Birds in his Ear for a Pendant. He is called the Hum-Bird or Humming-Bird, because some say he makes a noise like a Spinning Wheel when he flies, which I think rather an Imagination than real ; for I have been many times very near them, both when they hover’d and when they did fly, and I never heard any Noise; besides, their Body and Wings are too small to strike Air enough to make any Noise.* But of this I shall not be positive, because some Authors are opposite tome. It is a Solitary Bird: I never saw but two at a time together, viz. the Male and the Female, they being easily known when together, the Male being somewhat bigger than the’ Female. t Tf one takes a small Bird’s Wing, and stand 4 or 5 yards from a Candle (when dark) and open the Wing, and look thro’ it at the Candle, he may see a most elegant Colour of red and green, which green doth something resemble the Colour of‘this Bird, The technical literature pertaining to Humming Birds is very exten- sive, perhaps exceeding in the number of separate titles that of any other group. ‘ Most of it,” says Dr. Coues, ‘is ‘special,’ that is, rep- resented by books and papers exclusively devoted to this group of birds.” “Hummers,” says the learned bibliographer just quoted, * are very peculiar birds, and their study may almost be said to form a par- ticular department of ornithology; in fact, the word ‘trochilidist’ has been coined to designate those who pay special attention to this branch of science; and there are few ornithologists who, however great their general sii gateway can be considered ezrents in this study.{” * Perhaps the Ww nee s hearing was defective. t Another error; the reverse being the case when there is any difference in size between the sexes. It is singular he did not notice the difference of color between the sexes, the brilliant ruby throat of the male being so conspicuous an ornament. t Third Installment of American Ornithological Bibliography. By Dr. Elliott Coues, U.S.A. Bulletin of the U. S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, vol. v, No. 4, 1879, p. 690. In this exceedingly useful work, there are given under the heading of Trochilide (pp. 659-690) nearly three hundred separate titles, which shows how favorite a fam- THE HUMMING BIRDS. 259 The extent to which our knowledge of Humming Birds has grown may be realized when it is considered that in 1758, when the tenth edition of Linneus’s Systema Nature was published, only eighteen species were known, while at the present time the total number of rec- ognizable species and subspecies is not far from five hundred. The gradual evolution of our knowledge on the subject is thus outlined by Dr. Coues in the bibliography from which we have previously quoted : In 1758, when Linnzeus applied his system consistently to birds, in the tenth edi- tion of the Systema Natur, he used the classic word Trochilus for a genus coexten- sive with the modern family Trochilida, and catalogued 18 species, mostly based upon descriptions or figures furnished by Seba, Brown, Sloane, Catesby, Edwards, Clusius, and Albin, with references also to the Mus. Ad. Fr. In the twelfth edition, 1766, this number was increased to 22, with many additional references, as to Marcgrave, Willughby, Ray, and especially Brisson. In 1760, the last-named famous ornithologist gave us what may be deemed the first extended or in any sense ‘‘ monographic” account of Trochilidw. Studiously collating the already numerous notices scattered through works of the character I have mentioned, as well as through the illustrated and other natural history treatises of his predecessors in ornithology, he was enabled to describe with his customary elaboration no fewer than 36 species and to present a copious bibliography. He also made the first tenable genera of Hummers after Trochilus, dividing the whole family into two groups, Polytmus and Mellisuga, one containing large species with curved bills, the other small species with straight bills. In this action of Brisson’s we see the origin of the curious fashion which so long endured among French writers, that of distinguishing “ Colibris” from ‘‘ Oiseaux-mouches” among Trochilida. It is also notable as the starting-point of a generic subdivision of the group which was destined at length to reach the farcical and scandalous extreme of some 350 genera for few more than 400 known species. In 1779, Buffon adopted the same two divisions of ‘‘Colibris” and ‘ Oiseaux- mouches,” presenting 19 species of the former and 24 of the latter group, a total of 43 Trochilide. If we except the mere naming and describing of some additional species by Gmelin and Latham, nearly all that had been learned of the birds up to the close of the last century was reflected in the works of these two famous French authors. In 1788, the industrious but indiscriminate and incompetent compiler of the Thir- teenth edition of the Syst. Nat. produced a total of 65 species of Trochilus. None were described except at second-hand, but to many of them binomial names were first affixed. Two years afterward 65 species of Trochilus were recorded in the Ind. Orn. of Latham.* We are thus brought, by the stepping-stones of but few works requiring special ‘mention here, to the opening of the nineteenth century, which saw Audebert and Vieillot’s eeiasans work, Ois. Dorés, Benes the first ornithological work which ily this has been with soieey An igen to ake Meachaiae on 690- 692), which embodies a systematic review of Trochilidine literature, and an ‘Index Gen- erum Trochilidarum ” (pp. 692-696), consisting of an alphabetical list. with refer- ences, of no less than four hundred and six different generic names (including some- times two or more different spellings of the same name), render this bibliography very complete up to date, and quite indispensable to any one doing special work upon this group of birds. *The eighth volume, 1812, of Shaw’s Gen. Zool. gave 70 species of Trochilus. 260 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. undertook to reproduce metallic reflections of plumage. The feathery Iris of these exquisite creatures is always fascinating, and there are no more favorable subjects for glittering plates. The work, indeed, was not exclusively a monograph of the Hummers, but the Histoire Naturelle des Colibris et des Oiseaux-mouches formed a large part of the undertaking. Scientific names were not used in the Ois. Dor., but a technical nomenclature of the subjects of the work was furnished by Vieillot in 1817. The first great illustrated work on Hummers exclusively was Lesson’s, published in parts, from 1829 to 1832, the parts being afterward grouped in three separately titled volumes. This author described and figured in colors upward of 100 (about 110) species, many of which were actually new, and to many more of which new names were given.