92 PRESERVATION IN CAPTIVITY. 



chilidae in captivity, and the more so as they 

 throw a considerable light on the habits and 

 economy of these lovely birds. 



According to Labat, Father Montdidier kept 

 Humming-birds for the space of five or six 

 months in his apartment, where they brought up 

 their young ; and Azara states that Don Pedro 

 de Melo, Governor of Paraguay, kept an adult 

 Humming-bird for many months : it became so 

 tame as to fly round him for food. It was fed 

 ordinarily on syrup, but fresh flowers were from 

 time to time presented to it. It died at last, as 

 is asserted, through the negligence of a servant. 

 But we will come at once to modern times. 



Mr. Bullock states, that while in Mexico 

 he had at one time nearly seventy in cages, 

 which with care and attention he kept living 

 for some weeks, and he adds that he has no 

 doubt of the possibility of bringing them alive 

 to Europe^ "The accounts of their being so 

 fierce and untameable as to beat themselves 

 to death when confined are not true ; no bird 

 is more easily reconciled to its new situa- 

 tion. It is true they are seldom off the wing, 

 but they never strike themselves against the 

 cage or the glass of a window ; they remain, 

 as it were, suspended in the air, in a space 

 barely sufficient for them to move their wings, 

 and the humming noise proceeds entirely from 

 the surprising velocity by which they perform 

 the motion. In each cage was placed a small 



