HUMMING-BIRDS. 49 



that I was doing this work in the interest of science 

 kept me to my purpose. 



The little crested sprite bears confinement less easily 

 than the others, and rarely survives two or three days. 

 Every morning I would introduce a bough of fragrant 

 lime-blossoms, at which they would all dash instantly, 

 diving into the flowers with great eagerness. Sugar 

 dissolved in water, and diluted honey, was their favor- 

 ite food, and they would sip it greedily. Holding 

 them by their feet, I would place their beaks in a 

 bottle of syrup, when they would rapidly eject their 

 tongues and withdraw them, repeating this operation 

 until satisfied. The long slender tube, at that time, 

 looks like the tongue of a serpent, it is so deeply cleft, 

 or bifurcated. They never displayed fear, but would 

 readily alight on my ringer and glance fearlessly up 

 at me, watching an opportunity, however, for escape. 



In some of the islands, Martinique especially, the 

 boys shoot the small birds with pellets of clay or hard, 

 round seeds, through hollow canes lined with zinc or 

 glass. They kill a great many in this way. 



The week before leaving America for the West 

 Indies I was the guest of a friend, who one day came 

 in with an odd-looking cane in his hand, and said : 

 " This is a gun I am going to give you to use in the 

 West Indies. It is for shooting humming-birds. And 

 you will value it all the more highly when I tell you 

 that it once belonged to Dr. Bryant, who used it in his 

 numerous excursions in the Bahamas." Dr. Bryant, 

 a naturalist of note, and donor to the Boston Society 

 of Natural History of the unsurpassed La Fresnaye 

 collection of birds, spent many years in the West 

 Indies previous to his death, and contributed much 

 4 



