HUMMING-BIRDS 321 



returning to the twig. Others come out just at dusk, and 

 remain on the wing, now stationary, now darting about with 

 the greatest rapidity, imitating in a limited space the evolu- 

 tions of the goatsuckers, and evidently for the same end 

 and purpose. Mr. Gosse also remarks : " All the humming- 

 birds have more or less the habit, when in flight, of pausing 

 in the air and throwing the body and tail into rapid and odd 

 contortions. This is most observable in the Polytmus, from 

 the effect that such motions have on the long feathers of the 

 tail. That the object of these quick turns is the capture of 

 insects, I am sure, having watched one thus engaged pretty 

 close to me. I observed it carefully, and distinctly saw the 

 minute flies in the air which it pursued and caught, and 

 heard repeatedly the snapping of the beak. My presence 

 scarcely disturbed it, if at all." 



There is also an extensive group of small brown humming- 

 birds, forming the sub-family Phaethornithinse, which rarely 

 or never visit flowers, but frequent the shady recesses of the 

 forest, where they hunt for minute insects. They dart about 

 among the foliage, and visit in rapid succession every leaf 

 upon a branch, balancing themselves vertically in the air, 

 passing their beaks closely over the under-surface of each leaf, 

 and thus capturing, no doubt, any small insects that may 

 lurk there. While doing this, the two long feathers of the 

 tail have a vibrating motion, serving apparently as a rudder 

 to assist them in performing the delicate operation. Others 

 search up and down stems and dead sticks in the same 

 manner, every now and then picking off something, exactly 

 as a bush -shrike or a tree-creeper does, with the difference 

 that the humming-bird is constantly on the wing ; while the 

 remarkable sickle-bill is said to probe the scale-covered stems 

 of palms and tree-ferns to obtain its insect food. 



It is a well-known fact that although humming-birds are 

 easily tamed, they cannot be preserved long in captivity, even 

 in their own country, when fed only on syrup. Audubon 

 states that when thus fed they only live a month or two and 

 die apparently starved ; while if kept in a room whose open 

 windows are covered with a fine net, so as to allow small 

 insects to enter, they have been kept for a whole year without 

 any ill effects. Another writer, Mr. Webber, captured and 

 Y 



