Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 99, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1919 — Seventeen Species of the Humming Bird Family Are Summer Visitors to U. S. [ARTICLE]

Seventeen Species of the Humming Bird Family Are Summer Visitors to U. S.

It Is said that altogether 17 species of humming birds are summer visitors to the United States, and that one of these, the red hummer, 1§ found on the Pacific coast as far north as Alaska. The Brazilian forests are noted for their many varieties of these magnificent birds, though a few specimens are of somber colors. In most species the bill is straight. In a few the bill curves upward alt the tip and in others downward. The length of the bill differs greatly, that of “the sword-bearer” being five inches long, or longer than the head and body totogpther, while in another it is only one-fourth of an inch. Among the most plentiful of humming birds was one to which the name Chrysolampls mosquitus has been given. This species was once especially numerous in Brazil, Venezuela and the Guianas, but skin hunters have slaughtered them by thousands, the skins being exported to be used in the manufacture of ornaments and decorations. - , -