3 I 2 Lucas on the Food of Hummingbirds. T Oc^ 



the dissection of many specimens of Trochilus colubris, both 

 young and old, that he had never found anything to convince him 

 that they lived on insects. 



Dr. Gibbs' paper was followed by notes from Mr. Lawrence 

 Bruner, saying that he had observed the Rubythroat taking sap 

 from Qiiercus r?iber, and Mr. Frank Bolles, stating that he had 

 seen the same species regularly attending at holes drilled by the 

 Sapsucker (Sp/iyrap/cus varius) in red maple, red oak, poplar, 

 white and gray birch, and white ash. Later on Mr. W. N. Clute 

 wrote that in southern New York the favorite flower of the Ruby- 

 throat is the swamp thistle (Cirsium muticuni), and as the 

 honey bee gets pollen, but no honey, from this flower, it would 

 appear that birds visit these flowers for the sake of the insects they 

 contain. Many of these insects were said to be so minute as to 

 escape ordinary observation ; and were these taken and larger 

 species left, the impression might he produced that no insects 

 had been eaten. Lastly Mr. Alvah A. Eaton wrote that in Cali- 

 fornia Anna's Hummingbird fed on the sap of the willow (Sa/ix 

 lar/o/epis), drinking at holes made by Sphyrapicus ruber, and 

 from wounds made by the grub of a large borer. I have also been 

 told that the Rubythroat has been seen in fall hovering about 

 fallen pears from which the juice had exuded sufficiently to attract 

 numerous 'yellow-jackets.' 



In view of the published accounts of Gould, Gosse and others, 

 substantiated by incidental observations of my own, this amount of 

 testimony to the vegetable nature of the Hummingbird's food was 

 a little surprising, and, in the hope of throwing a little light on the 

 subject, the birds themselves were appealed to and the stomach 

 contents of a number examined. 



Altogether twenty-nine specimens, representing thirteen 

 species, from sixteen widely separated localities, were examined, 

 and all of these, save four which were quite empty, contained 

 insect remains, usually in large quantities. Young Humming- 

 birds examined by Dr. Shufeldt and myself contained flies, 

 spiders, and beetles, and any one who examines a nestling will 

 notice that the skin of the neck is distended by the expansion of 

 the oesophagus where this is, or has been, packed with food, so 

 it is pretty safe to say that it is more than doubtful that honey 

 enters into the little ones' bill of fare. 



