HUMMING BIRDS
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Humming Birds, small birds with narrow, pointed wings, often seen hovering over flowers. In this position their wings vibrate so fast that they make a humming sound. These birds are confined solely to the New World. Although there are about 500 species, there is only one found in the United States east of the Mississippi. Nevertheless, this single species — the ruby-throated humming bird —- is widely known to residents of the United States. Other kinds live west of the Mississippi, and in all North America there are about 15 species. The greatest variety live in Central and South America and in the West Indies. The humming birds are related to the swifts. Besides their long wings, already mentioned, they have long slender bills of different forms — straight in some cases, in others
HUMMING BIRD.
(a) Sword-bill Humming Bird. (b) White-booted Racket-tail. (c) (c) Male and Female Tufted Coquette.
curved and splendidly adapted to the form of the flowers which they visit. It was formerly supposed that they fed only upon the nectar of flowers, but they also eat insects. Some of them are captured while on the wing, and others are obtained from the flowers which they frequent. They have weak feet and are much on the wing. Some of them are somber in color, but the majority have a brilliant plumage which shows a metallic reflection, changing according to the angle at which it is seen. Their nests are small, beautifully made structures. Often they are covered with lichens and resemble a knot on the limb. The young are fed through the bill, food being injected through it, as through a syringe, into the mouth of the young- bird. The ruby-throated humming bird is migratory, and arrives from the south about the first of May. It frequents flowers with a spreading corolla, like the trumpet flower and the morning glory. It is not timid, and can be tamed to ©at sweets from the hand. Its only note is a squeak, but some of the tropical species are good
singers. The sun-birds of Africa, India, the neighboring islands and northern Australia are often confused in the popular mind with humming birds. They are small birds of brilliant plumage, often with a metallic luster, but belong to quite a different family.
Hum'phreys, Andrew Atkinson,, an American soldier, was born at Philadelphia, Nov. 2, 1810, graduated at West Point in 1831, and was made first lieutenant in the topographical engineers. He had charge of the Coast Survey from 1845 to *$49 and, later, of the topographic and hydrographic survey of the Mississippi delta. He served through the Civil War, advancing to the rank of major-general of volunteers, taking part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellors-ville and Gettysburg, the siege and overthrow of Petersburg and the pursuit and surrender of Lee's army. In 1866 he was made chief of engineers, with the rank of brigadier-general. He was retired in 1879, and died at Washington, D. C., Dec. 27, 1883.
Hu'mus, the fine soil resulting from the decay of organic material. Its value lies less in the mineral matters it returns to the earth than in the change it produces in the texture of the soil. Its addition to stiff soils mellows them and gives them a better water capacity. See, also, SOILS and MANURES.
Hun'dred Years' War. The name given to the long series of contests between England and France for the possession of the French crown and French territory, lasting from 1337 more or less intermittently till 1453. For history of this period see ENGLAND and FRANCE. See, also, Green's Short History of the English People.
Huns, a wandering race of early times, whose earliest ancestors probably were the Hiung-nu, a people of Turkish stock, who formed a powerful state in Mongolia in the second century B. C. The tribesmen afterward scattered, and one part settled in the neighborhood of the Rivers Ural and Volga. About 372 A. D. they moved westward and conquered first the Alani, who lived between the Volga and the Don, then the Ostrogoths, driving the greater part of the Visigoths across the Danube. The districts quitted by the Goths were occupied by the Huns. This, their first wave of invasion seems then to have subsided; and, though it was followed by more than one small afterwave, it was not till 430 A, D. that the second and
f eater wave began to form. Their chief, ugulas, became so powerful that in 432 Theodosius II, emperor of Byzantium, was forced to give him a tribute of 350 pounds of gold. In 433 he was succeeded by his famous nephew Attila (whom see). Under Attila, who called himself the Scourge of God, Illyria and all the region between the Black Sea and the Adriatic were overrun. Theodosius was conquered in three battles, and Thrace, Greece and Macedonia were laid waste. Attila next marched through Germany and
