WAYS OF THE WILD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 231, 29 September 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAYS OF THE WILD.

A NATURALISTS NOTEBOOK.

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<Bv A. T. PTCKOFT

A correspondent wishes to know U it is correct that humming birds are to be found in Africa, and if they are able, when poising in the air, to remain stationary. Humming birds are entire!v confined to the New World; tbev ransje from Sitka, in the north-west of Alaska, to Tierra del Fuego, and from the low-' lands near the coast to an altitude of 16,000 ft on the Andes. The northern and southern species, however, are migrants, and retire at the end of the short summer of the high latitudes towards the equator. The number of species increases as we approach the equator, the tropical forest regions producing them in the greatest variety, and an idea of the abundance of some of the species may be obtained from the fact that their skins were formerly for many years an article of trade, tens of thousands being annually exported from Bogota and various places in Brazil and sold in London, Paris and New York. The West India Islands are inhabited by sixteen species, none of which extend to the mainland. . more than nine species are found within the borders of the United States, and these only as summer visitors, most of them retreating during the cold season to Mexico and Central America, though some are said to winter in California during mild winters. Altogether about 430 different kinds of humming birds are known. They are often mentioned as occurring in Africa. India and other tropical parts of the Old World, but the birds thus misnamed belong to a very different group, nainel v. the nectariniidae, or sun birds, which, indeed, offer a striking external resemblance to the true humming birds, but differ from them in the structure of the feet and tongue, in the shape of the breastbone and other most important characters.

The smallest birds are the humming birds, so-called on account of the vibrations of their wings producing a humming sound. They belong to the order Troeliilidae, from the Latin Trochilus. a small kind of bird. They are most nearlv allied to the Swifts, with which they have many points of their interna! organisation in common. Even their long slender bills, which appear so verv different from the wide-gaping mouth' of a Swift, are much less so at an early period of their life. The nestlings of some species Oi humming birds have the bill short and broadened, the gape wide; and, in fact, more resembling a Swift than that of the adult parent bird.

Greatly Developed Wing Muscles. The bill of humming birds, although always very slender, is very variable in shape and size, being straight in some and curved in others; in some extrenielv short, as in the thornbills. and in others extremely long, as in the sword-bill, where it is used in probing to the base of the long tubular flowers from which the bird derives its food. The tongue is long, composed of two cylindrical united tubes and opening with a cleft at the tip. It is capable of being protruded for some distance, the tongue bones with their muscles being prolonged backwards and upwards over the back of the skulL The wings are as a rule narrow and pointed, apparently most unsuited for a sustained flight, but they are set in motion by enormously-developed museles, which render the body of these tiny birds much heavier than one would expect. The tail is wonderfully varied in shape through out the family, and in many instances highly ornamental; it consists of ten feathers. The feet are particularly small and feeble, and quite unfit for progression on the groundL Therefore these birds seldom, or never, alight on the earth, but prefer to settle 011 a bare dead limb of a tree or some other projection. The legs of some species are feathered to the feet.

The eggs are oval and white, and always two in number. The nert is a delicate structure, compactly built of soft materials felted together; its outside U generally adorned with lichens, or dea4 leaves in such a manner as 10 tend to its concealment. The male is said to work at this decoration often after the female has commenced to sit. As a rule the male is the most brilliantly coloured, but in some instances the female is also adorned with metallic plumage. Their intellect seems to be of a low order.

The late Mr. John Gould, F.R.S.. who descril>ed and figured in his great work. "'The Monograph of the Trochilidae." 400 different species, and whose collection of 300 species and "JOOO specimens is now id the British Museum, says: "In their disposition humming-birds are unlike birds and approach more nearly the insects. Restlessness, irritability, and pugnacity are among their principal characteristics, they not only fight persistently among themselves, but they will even venture to attack much larger birds, and it is said

that several of tliem will combine and attack a hawk and drive it away."

People are often attacked "bv them when they approach too near their nests. It is stated that they have also a great dislike to the large hawk moths, which they themselves somewhat resemble in their flight, the vibration of the vinus producing in both a similar humming sound. Humming birds are extremely difficult to keep in confinement, owing, probably, to the impossibility of providing them with suitable food and with the means of indulging in their ceaseless flights. Liberty is to them life.

Uniqne Power and Peculiarity of Flight

The Duke of Argyll describes it thus: The hummingbirds are perhaps the inn-' remarkable examples in the world of th.? machinery of flight. The power of poising themselves in the air, remaining absolutely stationary whilst they sear.-.i the blossoms for insect* is a powerful essential to their life. When they intend progressive flight, it i.s elfeciAd wirh such velocity as to elude the eye. Theaction cf the wing in all these cases i.far too rapid to enable observer io detect the exact difference between that. kind of motion which keeps the bird at absolute rest in the air. and that which carries it along with such ircinen=e velocity. There is another fact mentioned by those who have watched their movements most closely, the fact that the axis of the humming bird's body, when hovering, is always highly inclined, so much so as to appear almost perpendicular in the air. In other words, the wing-stroke, instead of being delivered perpendicular!v downwards, which would infallibly carry the bedy onwards, is delivered at such an angle forwards as to bring to an exact balance the upward, the downward and the forward forces a which bear upon the body of the bing,