Hummingbirds

"In my backyard in north Texas On the hottest summer night Hummingbirds fall all around us Their hearts stopped beating in mid-flight."

"Across the downs a hummingbird Came dipping through the bowers, He pivoted on emptiness To scrutinize the flowers."

"The male is colored much more gorgeously than the female so that he can be shot and made into feather embroidery."

"[Footnote:] Much still remains to be learned about his sex life because the Hummingbird is quicker than the eye."

"The restless activity and general appearance of the Humming-bird make one almost hesitate to believe that it is really a bird and not a brilliant tropical insect. It possesses no ; few people see it except on the wing, and its is so rarely found that to most people the bird is merely a sudden apparition, seen hovering over a flower, its ruby throat sparkling in the sun. When the Humming-bird's nest is discovered, it turns out to be a structure as delicate and rare as its little architect. It is often fixed on a -covered twig, frequently in s, but as often on tall forest trees. To the outside of the nest, bits of gray lichen are fastened, so that at a distance the nest is mistaken for a knob of the twig itself. The eggs are always two, ridiculously small, like s."

"My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—equal seekers of sweetness."

"Hummingbirds, like all Neotropical migrants, don't recognize any borders, boundaries, or countries; they consider all of the Americas their home, nesting in the northern part of their range and wintering in the southern part."

"Jewelled coryphée With quivering wings like shielding gauze outspread."

"Quick as a humming bird is my love, Dipping into the hearts of flowers— She darts so eagerly, swiftly, sweetly Dipping into the flowers of my heart."

"And the humming-bird that hung Like a jewel up among The tilted honeysuckle horns They mesmerized and swung In the palpitating air, Drowsed with odors strange and rare, And, with whispered laughter, slipped away And left him hanging there."

"A flash of harmless lightning, A mist of rainbow dyes, The burnished sunbeams brightening From flower to flower he flies."