PRESERVATION IN CAPTITITT. 97 



indicating the capture of some very minute 

 insect. 



After a short time one of these birds, from some 

 unexplained cause (perhaps it had struck itself 

 during its flight), sunk down, evidently in a 

 dying state, and shortly afterwards expired. 

 The other continued active and lively. The 

 flowers, however, were soon exhausted ; per- 

 ceiving this, Mr. Grosse says, " I prepared a 

 tube, made of the barrel of a goose-quill, which 

 I inserted into the cork of a bottle to secure its 

 steadiness and upright position, and filled it with 

 juice of sugar-cane. I then took a large Ipomea, 

 and having cut off" the bottom, I slipped the 

 flower over the tube, so that the qiull took the 

 place of the nectary of the flower. The bird 

 flew to it in a moment, clung to the bottle rim, 

 and bringing his beak perpendicular, thrust it 

 into the tube. It was at once evident that the 

 repast was agreeable, for he continued pumping 

 for several seconds, and on his flying off I found 

 the quill emptied. As he had torn off the 

 flower in his eagerness for more, and even fol- 

 lowed the fragments of the corolla as they lay 

 on the table to search them, I refilled the quill, 

 and put a blossom of the Marvel of Peru into 

 it, so that the flower expanded over the top. 

 The little toper found it again, and after drink- 

 ing freely withdrew his beak ; but the blossom 

 was adhering to it as a sheath. This incum- 

 brance he presently got rid of, and then he re- 



H 



