160 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 85 



169 days that make the grand total for the three summers 

 the Ruby-throats were seen drinking syrup between one and 

 two thousand times, they were seen collecting food away 

 from the bottles twenty-three times, but one cannot be pos- 

 itive that insect food was always taken then. Never for an 

 instant was one of these birds in captivity, and there was the 

 utmost freedom for it in choice of food. 



This choice of a sugar diet together with the large amount 

 consumed caused surprise and soon called forth the esti- 

 mate that a Hummingbird would eat a tea-spoonful of sugar 

 in one day. Some method of testing this estimate was 

 sought, resulting in a plan for putting the bottles beyond 

 the reach of the ants that swarmed about them : The stick 

 that supported the artificial nasturtium and tiger-lily was 

 nailed to a block of wood which was submerged in a flower- 

 pot filled with water. For a short time this arrangement 

 served very well until leaves and flower petals fell in form- 

 ing rafts upon which the ants were able to cross. No 

 myrmecologist was at hand to sug'gest a remedy, but at last 

 ants' aversion to kerosene was recalled and the water was 

 covered with a film of kerosene, which effectually debarred 

 them. Nevertheless one day the ants were found taking the 

 syrup as of old; an examinatioii of existing conditions 

 showed that a grass stem had lodged against the support- 

 ing stick, forming a bridge over which these wise little crea- 

 tures were busily passing to and fro. Except when the bot- 

 tles were isolated in this manner ants of various sizes and 

 different colors fed constantly on the syrup often crowding 

 a bottle to its very mouth, but this did not prevent the birds 

 from drinking. I am not prepared to say that they never 

 took an ant as food, but I have stood as closely as is pos- 

 sible to a bottle while a Hummingbird was drinking from 

 it, and none was taken at such times. When a new bottle 

 was placed, or the old ones were set out in the spring and 

 filled it took from one to two days for the ants to find the 

 syrup. A small red species generally, if not always, was 

 the ant to make the discovery, the fruits of which it enjoyed 



