238 LAWSON'S HISTORY 



because they are a very war like bird, and beat the 

 crows from the plantations. 



The swift, or diveling, the same as in England. 



Swallows, the same as in England. 



The humming bird is the miracle of all our winged 

 animals. He is feathered as a bird, and gets his 

 living as the bees, by sucking the honey from each 

 flower. In some of the larger sort of flowers, he 

 will bury himself, by diving to suck the bottom of 

 it, so that he is quite covered, and often times 

 children catch them in those flowers, and keep them 

 alive five or six days. They are of different colors, 

 the cock differing from the hen. The cock is of a 

 green red aurora, and other colors mixed. He is 

 much less than a wren, and very nimble. His 

 nest is one of the greatest pieces of workmanship 

 the whole tribe of winged animals can show, it 

 commonly hanging on a single brier, most artifi- 

 cially woven, a small hole being left to go in and 

 out at. The eggs are the bigness of peas. 



The tomtit, or ox eyes, the same as* in England. 



Of owls, we have two sorts. The smaller sort 

 are like ours in England ; the other sort is as big 

 as a middling goose, and has a prodigious head. 

 They make a fearful hollowing in the night time, 

 like a man, whereby they often make strangers 

 lose their w^ay in the woods. 



Scritch owls much the same as in Europe. 



The baltimore bird, so called from the lord Balti- 

 more, proprietor of all Maryland, in which province 

 many of them are found. They are the bigness 



