132 NORTHERN HUMMING-BIRD. 



the little proprietors dart around with a humming 

 sound. The precise period of incubation I am unable 

 to give ; but the young are in the habit, a short time 

 before they leave the nest, of thrusting their bills into 

 the mouths of their parents, and sucking what they 

 have brought them. As I have found their nests 

 with eggs so late as the 12th July, I do not doubt but 

 that they frequently, and perhaps usually, raise two 

 broods in the same season. 



" Their only note is a single chirp, not louder than 

 that of a small cricket or grashopper, generally uttered 

 while hovering from flower to flower, or when engaged 

 in a fight with his fellows ; for when two males meet 

 at the same bush or flowers, a battle instantly takes 

 place ; and the combatants ascend in the air chirping, 

 darting, and circling around each other, till the eye is 

 no longer able to follow them. The conqueror, how- 

 ever, generally returns to the place to reap the fruits 

 of his victory. I have seen them attack, and for a few 

 moments tease the king-bird ; and have also seen him, 

 in his turn, assaulted by a humble bee, which he soon 

 put to flight. 



" The singularity of this little bird has induced 

 many persons to attempt to raise them from the nest, 

 and accustom them to the cage. Mr Coffer of Fair- 

 fax, county Virginia, raised and kept two for some 

 months in a cage, supplying them with honey dis- 

 solved in water, on which they readily fed. As the 

 sweetness of the liquid frequently brought small flies 

 and gnats about the cage, the birds snapped and 



