*8Ss.J General Notes. 2I9 



it had struggled in vain for nearly two days to escape from a room into 

 which it had accidentally flown, it was picked up in an exhausted condition 

 and carefully placed out of doors in an arbor, in hopes of its recovering 

 sufficiently to fly away. A severe cold rain that night completely 

 numbed it, so that it was again taken to the house a mere bunch of 

 rumpled feathers — no life then being apparent. A slight warming quite 

 unexpectedly revived it, and it was but a short time before it opened its 

 eyes and flew to a nail, and then immediately began to rearrange its 

 plumage. As flowers and sweetened water were offered to this captive 

 before it was taken to the arbor, without its once noticing them, Miss 

 Brubaker was rather at a loss to know how to feed it; but at last she 

 conceived of placing some sugar and water in a conspicuous gladiolus 

 blossom, "which the Hummingbird soon discovered and visited, drinking 

 greedily the honey that was in the blossom. After this it became quite 

 lively, flying from its nail to some dried flowers and grasses in another 

 room, where it had rested during the two days it had remained in the 

 house without food or water. 



With the aid of a petunia blossom as a decoy, this little bird was soon 

 taught to drink from a small phial, holding about two teaspoonfuls of 

 sugar and water (about one-third sugar), that was suspended by a string 

 to the window casing. It was but a day or so before it seemed per- 

 fectly contented, not showing the least fear, but seemingly growing 

 stronger as well as larger in its new home. 



Miss Brubaker thinks the bird was not an old one, as its tail-feathers 

 grew considerably after she had it. She says that at first they kept a 

 variety of cut flowers in the room with it, but it barely alighted upon 

 them, flying at once to the bottle which it had learned to appreciate. 

 Somewhat after the manner of obtaining nectar from a flower, it would 

 sip a moment at the bottle and then dart away; but it was not long in 

 finding that the supply of sweetened water was inexhaustible, and that 

 there was no necessity of hastening its meal. At times it would drink 

 so much that its wings were unable to sustain the weight of the body, 

 and a fall to the floor was the result of its excessive fondness for this 

 artificial nectar. When left to itself and no check put upon its drinking, 

 it would consume at least half the contents of the phial daily — at least 

 one-half as much as its own bulk. 



"We are certain," she writes, "that for at least a month the bird had 

 access to no flowers whatever, thus making it certain that the sweetened 

 water furnished it its sole nourishment, and during this captivity it did 

 not show the first signs of diminishing strength." 



At the approach of cold weather it was placed in a cage, in which its 

 little history was brought to a close by its accidentally entangling one of 

 its claws in a loose wire which secured a small perch in the cage, and 

 thus suspended, with its head downward, it was found by Miss Brubaker 

 the next morning — another 'bunch' of rumbled feathers. — Samuel 

 Wells Willard, West De Pere. Wise. 



