106 HUMMING-BIRDS. 



' 



water during the passage, and hatched two young ones. 

 The mother, however, did not long survive, but the 

 young were brought to England, and continued for 

 some time in the possession of Lady Hammond. The 

 little creatures readily took honey from the lips of Lady 

 Hammond, and though the one did not live long, the 

 other survived for at least two months from the time 

 of their arrival." 



The food of the humming-birds was always con- 

 sidered to be only the honey or sweet juices extracted 

 from the nectaria of flowers ; but later observations 

 have proved that this alone was not sufficient to pre- 

 serve even such small bodies ; and when we compare 

 the structure of the tongue with that of birds which 

 use that member for darting suddenly out and catch- 

 ing up small objects, we shall find considerable resem- 

 blance, and the adaptation is farther confirmed by the 

 reality of their food being in a measure insectivorous. 

 Audubon found even coleopterous insects in their 

 stomach, and Wilson observes " I have seen the 

 humming-bird, for half an hour at a time, darting at 

 those little groups of insects that dance in the air in a 

 fine summer evening, retiring to an adjoining twig to 

 rest, and renewing the attack with a dexterity that 

 sets all other fly-catchers at defiance/' And in all 

 the deep tubular flowers in which they so much delight, 

 such as the different daturse, the bignonacese, &c., I 

 have no doubt that insects are as often withdrawn by 

 their active and viscid tongue as any portion of th 

 honey. 



