68 PASSERES. TROCHILIDjE. 



familiar as to suck from a flower held in the 

 hand, or even to take sugar from the lips, hover- 

 ing in front of the mouth, or clinging with its 

 tiny feet to the face of the person who feeds it. 

 It will very readily learn to suck from a cup of 

 sugar and water placed in the room, and will 

 amuse itself all day in capturing minute flies, on 

 the wing. *We have had half a dozen, or more, 

 in this state of confiding familiarity for several 

 weeks, in the West Indies. 



The nests of the Humming-birds are exquisite 

 specimens of the constructive art. Those of the 

 species now before us, are composed ordinarily of 

 the fine down of the silk-cotton tree (Bombax), 

 formed into a neat and compact cup. On the 

 outside it is generally bound round in different 

 directions with spider's web, made to adhere by a 

 viscous saliva, secreted by large glands in the 

 mouth of the bird. Little fragments of papery 

 lichen are stuck here and there about the outside, 

 and bound down with web. In this structure, 

 which is usually placed upon a horizontal twig, 

 the twig passing the substance of the bottom, two 

 oval eggs are laid, of the purest and most delicate 

 whiteness, which commonly produce a male and a 

 female. 



The Humming-birds of the West Indies, breed 

 all the year round; but in January and June, 

 nests are found in greatest abundance. The 

 young are easily reared by hand, and will readily 

 learn to take syrup from the end of a quill; 

 gnats, ants, and other small insects caught and 

 put into the fluid, and then given to the young 

 bird upon the point of the quill, will add to the 

 probability of success. 



