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114 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
fact that its actuai food 1s insects, and it cannot live on any 
other. 
Wilson gives the following facts in relation to this. He 
Says :— 
“ The singularity of this little bird has induced many persons to 
attempt to raise them from the nest, and accustom them to the 
cage. Mr. Coffer, of Fairfax County, Va., a gentleman who has 
paid great attention to the manners and peculiarities of our native 
birds, told me that he raised and kept two, for some months, in a 
cage, supplying them with honey dissolved in water, on which they 
readily fed. As the sweetness of the liquid frequently brought 
small flies and gnats about the cage and cup, the birds amused 
themselves by snapping at them on wing, and swallowing them 
with eagerness, so that these insects formed no inconsiderable part 
of their food. Mr. Charles Wilson Peale, proprietor of the 
Museum, tells me that he had two young Humming-birds, which 
he raised from the nest. They used to fly about the room, and 
would frequently perch on Mrs. Peale’s shoulder to be fed. When 
the sun shone strongly in the chamber, he has observed them dart- 
ing after the motes that floated in the light, as Flycatchers would 
after flies. In the summer of 1803, a nest of young Humming- 
birds was brought me, that were nearly fit to fly. One of them 
actually flew out by the window the same evening, and, falling 
against a wall, was killed. The other refused food, and the next 
morning I could but just perceive that it had life. A lady in the 
house undertook to be its nurse, placed it in her bosom, and, as it 
began to revive, dissolved a little sugar in her mouth, into which 
she thrust its bill, and it sucked with great avidity. In this man- 
ner, it was brought up until fit for the cage. I kept it upwards 
of three months, supplied it with loaf sugar dissolved in water, 
which it preferred to honey and water, gave it fresh flowers every 
morning sprinkled with the liquid, and surrounded the space in 
which I kept it with gauze, that it might not injure itself. It 
appeared gay, active, and full of spirit, hovering from flower to 
flower as if in its native wilds; and always expressed, by its 
motions and chirping, great pleasure at seeing fresh flowers intro- 
duced to its cage. Numbers of people visited it from motives of 
curiosity ; and I took every precaution to preserve it, if possible, 
