Project Gutenberg #944
The Voyage of the Beagle
Charles Darwin
1839Darwin's travel and natural history journal, split chapter by chapter from Project Gutenberg HTML.
Project Gutenberg #944 Public domain in the United States Cover source Local typographic cover created for MojiMori from public-domain source metadata
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one common to most of the species, which produces the humming noise. I never saw any other bird where the force of its wings appeared (as in a butterfly) so powerful in proportion to the weight of its body. When hovering by a flower, its tail is constantly expanded and shut like a fan, the body being kept in a nearly vertical position. This action appears to steady and support the bird, between the slow movements of its wings. Although flying from flower to flower in search of food, its stomach generally contained abundant remains of insects, which I suspect are much more the object of its search than honey. The note of this species, like that of nearly the whole family, is extremely shrill.