nd his nest.

But what was the meaning of a sharp, insect-like buzzing that fell at
intervals on my ear? Presently I succeeded in tracing the sound to the
hummer, which utters it whenever he darts from his perch and back again,
especially if there is a spectator or a rival near at hand, for whom he
seems in this way to express his contempt. It is a vocal sound, or, at
least, it comes from his throat, and is much louder and sharper than the
_susurrus_ produced by the rapid movement of his wings. This I ascertain
by hearing both the sounds at the same time.

But the oddest prank which this hummer performs is to dart up in the
air, and then down, almost striking a bush or a clump of grass at each
descent, repeating this feat a number of times with a swiftness that the
eye can scarcely follow. Having done this, he will swing up into the air
so far that you can scarcely see him with the naked eye; the next moment
he will drop into view, poise in mid-air seventy-five or a hundred feet
above your head, supporting himself by a swift motion of the wings, and
simply hitching to right and left in short arcs, as if he were fixed on
a pivot, sometimes meanwhile whirling clear around. There he hangs on
his invisible axis until you grow tired watching him, and then he darts
to his favorite perch on the dead tree.

No doubt John Vance Cheney had in mind another species when he composed
the following metrical description, but it aptly characterized the
volatile broad-tail as well:

"Voyager on golden air,
Type of all that's fleet and fair,
Incarnate gem,
Live diadem,
Bird-beam of the summer day,--
Whither on your sunny way?

* * * * *

Stay, forget lost Paradise,
Star-bird fallen from happy skies."

After that first meeting the broad-tailed hummers were frequently seen
in my rambles among the Rockies. In some places there were small
colonies of them. They did not always dwell together in harmony, but
often pursued one another like tiny furies, with a loud z-z-z-zip that
meant defiance and war. The swiftness of their movements often excited
my wonder, and it was difficult to see how they kept from impaling
themselves on thorns or snags, so reckless were their lightning-like
passages through the bushes and trees. When four or five of them were
found in one place, they would fairly thread the air with green and
purple as they described their circles and loops and fes