MANGO HUMMING-BIRD. 295 



mony, to have been brought jjive to England, 

 having been hatched during their voyage from 

 Jamaica, where the parent bird, while sitting on 

 her eggs, was discovered by a young gentleman 

 then on the point of leaving the island. He cut 

 off the twig on which the nest was placed, and 

 brought it on board the ship. The female soon 

 became sufficiently tame to suffer herself to be fed 

 with honey, and during the voyage hatched two 

 young ones, but did not long survive that event : 

 the young were however so successfully managed 

 as to be brought in good health to England, where 

 they were in the possession of Lady Hammond. 

 Dr. Latham adds that Sir Henry Englefield, BarU 

 and Colonel Sloane were both witnesses to these 

 little birds readily taking honey from the lips of 

 Lady Hammond with their bills. One of the birds 

 survived at least two months from the time of its 

 arrival; but the other did not live many days *. 



* Azara, in his History of Paraguay, tells us that Don Pedro 

 Melo of Portugal, Governor of Paraguay, kept a Humming- 

 Bird, which was caught full-grown, for the space of four months. 

 It was permitted to fly about the house at full liberty, knew its 

 master perfectly well, whom it would salute, and fly round him 

 in order to ask its food. Don Melo at such times took a cup of 

 clear syrop, and, inclining it a little, the bird would plunge its 

 beak into it and feed. He also gave it flowers from tune to time, 

 and thus this charming animal lived apparently as well as in the 

 open plains, till at length, during the absence of its master, it 

 perished through the negligence of the domestics. 



