174 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



twice a day with fresh flowers from the woods or 

 garden, placed in a room with windows merely closed 

 with mosquito gauze-netting, through which minute 

 insects were able to enter, lived twelve months, at the 

 expiration of which their liberty was granted them, the 

 person who kept them having a long voyage to per- 

 form." 



" This species," continues Audubon, <c has a parti- 

 cular liking for such flowers as are greatly tubular in 

 their form. The common jimpson weed or thorn- 

 apple (Datura stramonium) , and the trumpet-flower 

 (Bignonia radicans),&YQ among the most favoured by 

 their visits, and after these, honey-suckle, the balsam 

 of the gardens, and the wild species which grows on 

 the borders of ponds, rivulets, and deep ravines ; but 

 every flower, down to the wild violet, affords them a 

 certain portion of sustenance. Their food consists 

 principally of insects, generally of beetles (Coleoptera) ; 

 these, together with some equally diminutive flies, being 

 commonly found in their stomach. The first are 

 procured within the flowers, but many of the latter 

 on wing. The humming-bird might therefore be 

 looked upon as an expert fly-catcher." 



Again, says the same delightful author, " no sooner 

 has the sun introduced the vernal season and caused 

 millions of plants to expand their leaves arid blossoms 

 to his genial beams, than the little humming-bird is 

 seen advancing on fairy wings, carefully visiting every 

 opening flower-cup, and, like a curious florist, re- 

 moving from each the injurious insects that otherwise 

 would ere long cause their beauteous petals to droop 

 and decay. Poised in the air, it is observed peeping 

 cautiously, and with sparkling eye, into their inner- 

 most recesses ; whilst the ethereal motions of its 

 pinions, so rapid and so light, appear to fan and cool 

 the flower without injuring its fragile texture, and 

 produce a delightful murmuring sound well adapted 



