88 On the Food of the Humming-Bird. 



XXIV. Facts relative to the Food of the Humming- 

 Bird. By the Editor. 



IT is very generally supposed, that the Com- 

 mon Humming-Bird (Trochilus Colubris of Linnasus) 

 subsists exclusively upon the nectared juice, or honey, 

 which it sips from various species of flowers. Mr. 

 Brandis, however, asserts, that upon dissecting one 

 of these birds, he had found in its stomach, the ves- 

 tiges of insects*. I formerly noticed the observation 

 of this naturalist, with the remark, that the Hum- 

 mine-Bird was " one of the last birds one would have 

 suspected of feeding on animal foodf." 



A fact lately communicated to me, leaves me no 

 room to doubt, that the Trochilus does actually sub- 

 sist, in part, upon different species of insects. In the 

 course of the last summer, a friend of mine (upon 

 whose veracity I can depend) found in the stomach 

 of one of these little birds, two pretty large spiders, 

 which, from appearances, must have been very re- 

 cently taken in ; together with the vestiges, such as 

 the wings, &c, of flies. He thinks the bodies of the 

 spiders were nearly as large as those of the common 

 house flies : a circumstance which, of itself, will be 

 sufficient to show, that the insects were not acciden- 

 tally taken in, while the bird was busied in sipping 



* Sec the article Trochilus, in Gmclin's edition of the System* 

 Naturx« Tom. I. p. 485. 



t See Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania. Part 

 First, page 21. Philadelphia: 1799. 



