BIRDS. 



551 



plumage there is little about them to attract ; they have no winning ways, 

 their habits and actions seem almost automatic, they exhibit no intelligence, 

 and even their fearlessness seems to arise from the want of a brain suffi- 

 cient to appreciate what fear is. Then, too, they are very quarrelsome 

 among themselves, and every traveler in South America tells of their duels, 

 — duels between mites it is true, but combats which far more frequently 

 terminate disastrously than they do with German students, or even in our 

 own southern states. Yet stupid and uninteresting as they seem, every one 

 will make an exception in their favor when thinking of the old adage, 

 ' fine feathers do not make fine birds.' 



And then such dainty little nests as they make. One may hunt round 

 and round a tree or a bush where it is certain they have their home, and 

 yet this little bit of architecture will almost invariably escape him. It is 

 covered on the outside with lichens, so that it looks like nothing but a 

 knot or small excrescence ; but within it is a mass of down stolen from all 

 the thistles in the neighborhood, and the whole so deftly put together with 

 cobwebs, as to make it a fit setting for the jewel that occupies it, and the 

 eggs, scarcely larger than pearls, that run no danger of breakage in its 

 downy depths. 



Many attempts have been made to keep these birds in confinement, 

 feeding them on honey and water, syrup, and the like : some succeed 

 for a short time, but 

 sooner or later there 

 comes an accident, and 

 these little bodies do 

 not have life enough 

 to survive much in- 

 jury. Then, again, the 

 food is not sufficient. 

 It is a poor substitute 

 for the nectar of flow- 

 ers ; and besides, these 

 birds need insects, and 

 these cannot well be 

 supplied in sufficient 

 quantities. As much 

 bright sunlight as is 

 possible is another ne- 

 cessity ; and no human hand, no matter how skilful, careful, and thought- 

 ful, can supply these requisites which nature offers freely. 



as 



Fig. 453. — Ruby-throat humming-bird (Trochihts colubris). 



