Penfyhania, Philadelphia. 215 



However Mr. Bartram has kept a couple of 

 them for feveral weeks together, by feed- 

 ing them with water in which fugar had 

 been dhTolved, and I am of opinion that it 

 would not be difficult to keep them all win- 

 ter in a hot-houfe. 



The humming bird always builds its neft 

 in the middle of a branch of a tree, and it 

 is fo fmall, that it cannot be feen from the 

 ground, but he who intends to fee it muft 

 get up to the branch. For this reafon it 

 is looked upon as a great rarity if a neft is 

 accidentally found, efpecially as the trees in 

 fummer have fo thick a foliage. The neft is 

 likewife the leaft of all ; that which is in 

 my pofleffion is quite round, and confifts in 

 the infide of a brownifh and quite foft down, 

 which feems to have been collected from 

 the leaves of the great mullein or Verbafcum 

 Thapfus, which are often found covered 

 with a foft wool of this colour, and the plant 

 is plentiful here. The outfide of the neft 

 has a coating of green mofs, fuch as is com- 

 mon on old pales or enclofures and on trees; 

 the inner diameter of the neft is hardly a 

 geometrical inch at the top, and its depth 

 half an inch. It is however known that the 

 humming birds make their nefts likewife 

 of flax, hemp, mofs, hair and other fuch foft 



O 4 materials j 



