Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/361

HUMMEL. 313 HUMMING-BIRD. able, advice and instruction from the great Haydn. His entire career was marked by success and the appreciation of the public; so much so that at one time he was considered to rival Beethoven. His principal appointments were as follows: From 1804 to 1811, deputy kapellmeister under Haydn in the service of Prince Eszterhazj'; 1811-16, a successful teacher of composition in Vienna; kapellmeister to the Court of Stuttgart 181(il9, when he resigned to take a similar position at Weimar. None of these appointments interfered with his con- cert activities, for during his many leaves of absence he appeared in Saint Petersburg (1822), in Paris (1825), Belgium and Holland (1826), Vienna (1827), Warsaw (1828), and made a return visit to France in 1829. He appeared in LondoUj and was for a season the musical di- rector of German opera at the King's Theatre. From this time on his health gradually failed, and after much suffering he died at Weimar. He was a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and during his lifetime received many tokens of princely favor. As a pianist he ranked with the most famous of his generation, and as a com- poser was of scarcely less excellence. His com- positions number over a hundred, and include operas, cantatas, ballets, and considerable cham- ber music. For the Church, he wrote three masses arranged for four voices with orchestral and organ accompaniment, which are still held in high esteem. His Graduale and OfTertorium are in use to-day throughout Austria and Hun- gary. At least six of his concertos and a few of his sonatas remain standard works, and are in constant demand. He is of importance in tlie history of music, if only because of his efforts to introduce the present method of fingering in pianoforte study. HUMMEL, Karl (1S21 — ). A German land- scape painter and engraver, son of the composer, Joliann Nepomuk Hummel. He was born at Wei- mar, studied engraving under Schwerdgeburth and painting under Preller, with whom he traveled through Europe. From an earlier and idealized manner, after the fashion of Preller or of Claude Lorraine, Hummel gradually approached a more natural treatment, and turned in this second period from Italian scenery to landscapes nearer home. Among his pictures, of which many belong to the Grand Duke of Weimar, are: "The Gar- dens of Armida." which is his most important work (1858); "Tiew of Brienz Lake" (1858), and "View in Lauterbrunn Valley" (1859). both in the Leipzig Museum ; "Civit;1 Castellana" (1879) ; "Monte Coracte;" "Keller Lake in Hol- stein" (1884) ; and a "Wooded Landscape Near Michaclstein" (1888). His engravings of land- scapes are also well known. Hummel became professor in the Weimar Academy of Art in 1859. HUMMELER (from humtnel, variant of hvrnblc, hainhlr, to mutilate, from AS. hnmeUan, OHG. hamalon. to maim, Ger. Iinnimrln. luim- meln, to geld, from OHG. Iwmal, ham. nuitilatod ; possibly connected with Slct. (iam, to injure). .-V hand implement or machine used especially m Scotland, for removing the awn from the grain of barley after it has been thrashed. A com- mon kind of hummeler is a set of blunt knives fixed in a frame, with a handle, by means of which the machine is operatfd. Another form consists of blunt knives set on a roller. Hum- melers of various construction are sometimes at- tached to threshing-machines, in all of which blunt knives are made to pass frequently through the grain. HUMMING-BIBD (so called from the sound of its whirring wings). Une of the diminutive birds of the picarian family Trochilida!, closely related to the swifts. More than 400 species are known, e.clusively American, and mainly confined to the tropics, though a few species are summer visitors to colder latitudes, as far even as Gl° N. A few, also, of the tropical specie.s inhabit elevated mountainous tracts, even to the confines of perpetual snow. In the United States eighteen species of humming-birds are known, but only one of these is found east of the Mis- sissippi and north of Florida. All of the others belong to the Southwestern States and the Pa- cific Coast (see following page). Characteristics. The brilliancy of humming- birds, the rapidity with which they dart through the air, their hovering above the flowers from which they obtain their food, with a humming sound of wings which move so quickly as to be indistinctly visible, or 'like a mist,' have at- tracted universal admiration. The diminutive size of almost all of them — some are the smallest of birds, and when stripped of their feathers not larger than a bumblebee — has still further contributed to render them objects of interest. Like the bumblebees, too, they perform a service in the cross-fertilization of flowers. Consult Belt, Naturalist in Nicaragua (London, 1888). The largest known species is Patagona gigas of the Andes, which reaches a length of SV. inches, but this is really gigantic, few species exceeding 6 inches. The smallest known species is Cahjpie Helenw, which is only 2^4 inches long; it is a native of Cuba. The plumage of the different species exhibits an almost endless variety of form as well as of color, in crests, neck-tufts, leg-tufts, and many an extraordinary development of tail. The plumage of the males is usually far more varied and glittering than that of the females, and this tribe furnishes an extensive and forcible example in support of the doctrine of sexual selection (q.v. ). The metallic brilliance of the plumage, which in the gorgets and elsewhere often ex- hibits a gem like coruscation and iridescence, is due to the interference of light by the minute scales upon the surface of each feather, and not to pigments. The young resemble their mothers until they reach maturity. Food, etc. Humming-birds have slender bills, which are also generally long, and in some ex- tremely so, the form of the bill exhibiting adaptation to the kind of flowers from which the bird obtains its food — straight in some. eur-ed in others. The bill of the 'swordbill' (Dom- mantes etisiferus) is 5 inches long, much longer than the head. body, and tail of the bird together, while in Khampliomicron microrhi/nchiim the bill is only i of an inch long. In the sickle- billed hummingbirds (see Hkrmtt Hummixg- BlRn) the bill is notably curved so as to form almost one-third of a circle, while in Avocettula it is sharply and aliruptly recurved at the tip. Humming-birds do not, as was long supposed, feed on honey alone, but to a considerable extent, and some of them perhaps chiefly, on insects, not excepting spiders, while they often snatch away the insects which have become entangled in spiders' webs. The lower mandible fits into the