. Annual report. New York State Museum; Science; Science. i78 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM although they seem to fly much more rapidly on account of their small size, it is perfectly evident to one who studies their flight carefully that they travel at the rate of 30 to 50 miles an hour. The hummingbird is rather pugnacious and rarely permits others of the same species, or any birds, to approach his nesting site. When chasing away intruders, he usually utters a rapid chirping note while making the attack. Many people have maintained that they have never seen a hummingbird at rest except upon its nest
. Annual report. New York State Museum; Science; Science. i78 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM although they seem to fly much more rapidly on account of their small size, it is perfectly evident to one who studies their flight carefully that they travel at the rate of 30 to 50 miles an hour. The hummingbird is rather pugnacious and rarely permits others of the same species, or any birds, to approach his nesting site. When chasing away intruders, he usually utters a rapid chirping note while making the attack. Many people have maintained that they have never seen a hummingbird at rest except upon its nest, but it frequently alights on dead twigs and telegraph wires and will often sit for many minutes sunning and preening itself on the lofty twigs of dead trees in the forest. The nest of this species is one of the most beauti- ful constructed by any of our native birds. It is composed of the fluffy fibers from seed gossa- mers, the downy covering of young fern leaves, and other soft cottony substances, which are bound together with spiders' webs and the whole carefully covered with green and gray lichens so skilfully that it resem- bles a small, mossy knot. It is usually saddled upon a branch about the size of a walking stick or on the horizontal crotch of a limb from 6 to 40 feet from the ground. The eggs are always 2 in number, pure white in color, nearly elliptical in shape, and average .50 by .36 inches in size. The young at first have com- paratively short, stubby beaks and are nearly naked, but the feathers rapidly develop and the beaks become longer and slimmer. In 10 days. Photo by Clarence F. Stone Young of Ruby-throated hummingbird. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original New York State Museum. Albany : University of the State of New York
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectscience, bookyear1902
