114 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



fact that its actual food is insects, and it cannot live on any 

 other. 



Wilson gives the following facts in relation to this. He 

 says : — 



" 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. Coifer, of Fairfax County, Va., a gentleman who has 

 paid great attention to the manners and peculiarities of our native 

 l)irds, told me that he raised and kept two, for some months, in a 

 cage, supplying them with honey dissolved in water, on which they 

 readily fed. As the sweetness of the liquid frequently brought 

 small flies and gnats about the cage and cup, the birds amused 

 themselves by snapping at them on wing, and swallowing them 

 with eagerness, so that these insects formed no inconsiderable part 

 of their food. Mr. Charles Wilson Peale, proprietor of the 

 Museum, tells me that he had two young Humming-birds, which 

 he raised from the nest. They used to fly about the room, and 

 would frequently perch on Mrs. Peale's shoulder to be fed. When 

 the sun shone strongly in the chamber, he has observed them dart- 

 ing after the motes that floated in the light, as Flycatchers would 

 after flies. In the summer of 1803, a nest of young Humming- 

 birds was brought me, that were nearly fit to fly. One of them 

 actually flew out by the window the same evening, and, falling 

 against a wall, was killed. The other refused food, and the next 

 morning I could but just perceive that it had life. A lady in the 

 house undertook to be its nurse, placed it in, her bosom, and, as it 

 began to revive, dissolved a little sugar in her mouth, into which 

 she thrust its bill, and it sucked with great avidity. In this man- 

 ner, it was brought up until fit for the cage. I kept it upwards 

 of three months, supplied it with loaf sugar dissolved in water, 

 which it preferred to honey and water, gave it fresh flowers every 

 morning sprinkled with the liquid, and surrounded the space in 

 which I kept it with gauze, that it might not injure itself. It 

 appeared gay, active, and full of spirit, hovering from flower to 

 flower as if in its native wilds ; and always expressed, by its 

 motions and chirping, great pleasure at seeing fresh flowers intro* 

 duced to its cage. Numbers of people visited it from motives of 

 curiosity; and I took every precaution to preserve it, if possible. 



