316 LAND-BIRDS. 



cure the honey, but to obtain the smaller insects which feed 

 upon it. Of all the various flowers which they visit, they 

 show a marked fondness for those which are trumpet-shaped, 

 such as belong to the bignonia and honeysuckle. They do 

 not frequent the lower and more humble kinds, but prefer 

 those which are large and showy, and grow on shrubs, bushes, 

 and vines. The taller garden-flowers also attract their atten- 

 tion.* They are not wholly nectar-fed, as has poetically and 

 popularly been supposed, but are chiefly insectivorous. They 

 may be seen perched on some twig, from which they shoot 

 into the air, and with great address seize the gnats and smaller 

 insects, many of which are invisible to the naked human eye. 

 They sometimes perch as if merely to rest, the female espe- 

 cially. They never alight upon the ground, but they sometimes 

 perch upon weeds, and have been known to perish from being 

 caught in the burs of the burdock.^^^ They choose for their 

 haunts not only orchards, gardens, and groves near them, but 

 also forests, as I have several times observed among the White 

 Mountains. It is probable that they much more often fre- 

 quent the woods in civilized districts than is commonly sup- 

 posed. Though jealous and daringly pugnacious, yet they 

 are known to congregate occasionally in flocks, chiefly during 

 the migrations. Though apparently very hardy, yet they 

 have never, I believe, been successfully kept in confinement 

 for more than a few months. The principal obstacles in rear- 

 ing them are the injuries which they receive, if allowed to fly 

 about a room, their suffering from cold, and the difficulty of 

 providing proper food, since any prepared sirup apparently 

 does not satisfy them except when young. 



* To my biograpliy of the Humming- ^^^ This fact has been communicated 



bird I will here add that one fluttered to the Naturalist by Mr. A. K. Fisher, 



about the artificial flowers on the hat The original discoverer of the dead 



of a young lady sitting out of doors, bird (or rather its remains, a skeleton) 



and that another, having become entan- " found a live one on a plant near by." 



gled in cobwebs, so that he could not Mr. Fisher himself found a Yellowbird 



see, remained on the twig of a piazza- {Spinus tristis) thus caught, who "tore 



vine, the twig having been cut off by itself away, leaving a number of its 



scissors, while carried through the house, feathers on the burs." He also found 



and imtil his plumage was cleared of a Yellow-rumped Warbler "fastened 



the web, and his sight restored, when to the same kind of plant." 

 he at once became active. [From the 

 Appendix (p. 444) of the first edition. ] 



