122 PASSERES. — TROCHILID^. 



instead, the glass of syrup. After it had sucked 

 thus a time or two, it found it as it stood at the 

 edge of a table ; and I considered it domesticated. 

 Its time was now spent in incessant short flights 

 about the room, alternating with momentary rests 

 on the line ; often darting to another on the wing, 

 when the most rapid and beautiful evolutions would 

 take place, in which the long tail-feathers whisked 

 about in a singular manner. I believe these ren- 

 contres were all amicable, for they never appeared 

 to come into actual contact, nor to suffer any in- 

 convenience from them. After close observation to 

 ascertain the fact, I w^as fully convinced that the 

 object of their incessant sallies on the wing was the 

 capture of minute insects ; so minute that they were 

 generally undistinguishable to the human eye. Yet 

 the action of the bird shewed that something was 

 pursued and taken, and though from the extreme 

 rapidity of their motions, I could not often see the 

 capture, yet several times I did detect the snap of 

 the beak, and once or twice witnessed the taking of 

 some little fly, just large enough to be discerned in 

 the air. Moreover, the flights were sometimes very 

 short ; a leap out upon the wing to the distance of 

 a foot or two, and then a return to the perch, just 

 as the true Fly-catchers do ; which indeed the Hum- 

 ming-birds are, to all intents and purposes, and 

 most accomplished ones. I judge, that, on a low 

 estimate, each captured on the wing at least three 

 insects per minute, and that, with few intervals, 

 incessantly, from dawn to dusk. Abroad I do not 

 think quite so many would be taken in the air, the 



