Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds are Back, and Ramblings on Literature and Etymology
Well, aside from the "Bird-House War" and Spring blossoms, the debut of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird most assuredly seals the deal - Spring has sprung.
Note, here is the full-size version of this image in our eBirdseed.com photo library. (You can use the link below to access the complete library.) Other great non-eBirdseed.com hummingbird links include HUMMINGBIRD PHOTOGRAPHY, photographs of hummingbirds by Wayne Owen and Wikimedia Commons.
It is refreshing to see these little fellows, and it would be nice to write succinctly and eloquently about them, but I'm afraid Emily Dickinson and others have got me beat. Consider her poem number 1463...
With a revolving Wheel --
A Resonance of Emerald --
A Rush of Cochineal --
And every Blossom on the Bush
Adjusts its tumbled Head --
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy Morning's Ride --
Her 500th poem is beautiful as well...
Upon a single Wheel --
Whose spokes a dizzy Music make
As 'twere a travelling Mill --
He never stops, but slackens
Above the Ripest Rose --
Partakes without alighting
And praises as he goes,
Till every spice is tasted --
And then his Fairy Gig
Reels in remoter atmospheres --
And I rejoin my Dog,
And He and I, perplex us
If positive, 'twere we --
Or bore the Garden in the Brain
This Curiosity --
But He, the best Logician,
Refers my clumsy eye --
To just vibrating Blossoms!
An Exquisite Reply!
As a matter of fact, many folks including Dickinson and D.H Lawrence touched upon hummingbirds as did naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter... (Truth be told, work like Project Gutenberg offers rich general and ornithological research in tens of thousands of free books.)
But what of the origins of the word "hummingbird" itself? It just so happens that there's a neat Web site out there called the Online Etymology Dictionary. A quick look on that reveals that the first real usage was in 1637.
"There is a curious bird to see to, called a humming bird, no bigger then a great Beetle." [Thomas Morton, "New English Canaan," 1637]
However, the word "hum" may date back to the early 1300s.
And so it goes... A rambling look at hummingbirds, literature, and etymology...
Things could be worse on a lonely Sunday night...
See you by the feeders,
CapeCodAlan
Comments
Congratulations on seeing the Hummingbirds have come back! Spring IS here!
Posted by: Marcia | April 28, 2008 10:04 AM