322 TROPICAL NATURE 



tamed a number of the Kuby-throat in the United States. He 

 found that when fed for three weeks on syrup they drooped, 

 but after being let free for a day or two they would return to 

 the open cage for more of the syrup. Some which had been 

 thus tamed and set free returned the following year, and at 

 once flew straight to the remembered little cup of sweets. 

 Mr. Grosse in Jamaica also kept some in captivity, and found 

 the necessity of giving them insect food; and he remarks 

 that they were very fond of a small ant that swarmed on the 

 syrup with which they were fed. It is strange that, with all 

 this previous experience and information, those who have 

 attempted to bring live humming-birds to this country have 

 fed them exclusively on syrup ; and the weakness produced 

 by this insufficient food has no doubt been the chief cause of 

 their death on, or very soon after, arrival. A box of ants 

 would not be difficult to bring as food for them, but even 

 finely-chopped meat or yolk of egg would probably serve, in 

 the absence of insects, to supply the necessary proportion of 

 animal food. 



Nests 



The nests of the humming-birds are, as might be expected, 

 beautiful objects, some being no larger inside than the half of 

 a walnut shell. These small cup-shaped nests are often placed 

 in the fork of a branch, and the outside is sometimes beauti- 

 fully decorated with pieces of lichen, the body of the nest 

 being formed of cottony substances and the inside lined with 

 the finest and most silky fibres. Others suspend their nests 

 to creepers hanging over water, or even over the sea ; and 

 the Pichincha humming-bird once attached its nest to a straw- 

 rope hanging from the roof of a shed. Others again build 

 nests of a hammock-form attached to the face of rocks by 

 spiders' web; while the little forest-haunting species fasten 

 their nests to the points or to the under-sides of palm-leaves 

 or other suitable foliage. They lay only one or two white 



Geographical Distribution and Variation 



Most persons know that humming-birds are found only in 

 America; but it is not so generally known that they are 

 almost exclusively tropical birds, and that the few species that 



