CAPTURE OF HUMMING-BIRDS. 



467 



ill 



trimmed mantles with them. The French soldiers who shared 

 the Mexican expedition report that pictures made with the feathers 

 of the Humming-bird are brilliant and effective. 



Humming-birds cannot be preserved in captivity not that they 



Fig. 187. Sappho Comet. 



do not become familiar and affectionate, but their extreme delicacy 

 unfits them for restraint, for in spite of the utmost care that can be 

 bestowed on them, they will die in a few months. In their habitat 

 they are killed by concussion or with the sarbacane; if desired alive, 

 they are taken with a butterfly net. 



