HUMMINO-UIUDS IN CAPTIVITY, 539 



plant placed in the cage. He loves the sun, but seemed (piite 

 happy witliout it through the winter. For a song he makes a 

 sound like the sparks of a wireless at work. I think that so long 

 as the birds have artificial light to feed by in the long winter 

 nights for two or three hours, they do quite well. They must 

 be kept warm, for as soon as the temjjerature di-ops below 65 

 degrees they begin to look unhappy. 1 had a veiy ex ti'a ordinary 

 experience with a Garnet-throated Carib {Ealmnpis juyalaris), 

 which was sent to me by a friend from Paris last May. It was 

 bi'ought over by a friend in a small cage which was well wr:i])ped 

 up. When I got tlie bird home I found him lying at tlio bottom 

 of tlie cage, as I thought, dea-d. He was stone-cold to the touch 

 and showed absolutely no signs of life. I took the bird in my 

 hand into a very warm room, where, after about half an hour, 

 I suddenly felt his heart beat ; then he opened one eye and then 

 the other, and put his long thin tongue out. I put the tongue 

 into some hot syrup, to which I had added a drop of brandy. He 

 instantly started to feed, and in another few minutes was flying 

 about the cage. In ten days this bird was perfectly well, and I 

 still have him in perfect health, and he is just going tlu'ough his 

 second moult with me. It was a very cold d;iy when he was sent 

 over from Paris, and I think the cold and the want of food were 

 too much for him. Most humming-))irds, I believe, go into a 

 soi't of torpor as soon as the temperatui'e goes down below a 

 certain point. Both my humming-birds are most pugnacious 

 and have to be ke[)t in separate cages. To my mind, they are 

 the most intelligent and fascinating of all birds. My sun-bird 

 mixture is made up in the following way : — I mix into a paste 

 one heaped-up tea-spoonful of Mellin's food, one tea-spoonful of 

 honey, half a tea-spoonful of Nestle's milk, and the inside of 

 about a dozen meal-worms, and add to this a large breakfast- 

 cupful of boiling water. All my sun -birds have thriven on this 

 food, and I have one now that I have had for five years and it is 

 still in perfect health. I use the same food for the above two 

 humming-birds — the first and only ones I have ever had — with 

 ffreat success." 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1915, No. XXXVII. 37 



