HUMMING-BIRD. %i\ 



withering, they pluck it off, as it were in anger, by which means 

 the ground is often quite covered with them. When they fly 

 againft each other, they have, befides the humming, a fort of chirp- 

 ing noife, like a Sparrow or Chicken. They do not feed on inje&s 

 nor fruit ; nor can they be kept long in cages, though they have 

 been preferved alive for feveral weeks together, by feeding them 

 with water in which fugar had been diffolved. 



This bird moft frequently builds on the middle of a branch * Nest and East, 

 of a tree, and the neft is fo fmall, that it cannot be feen by a 

 perfon who ftands on the ground ; any one, therefore, defirous of 

 •feeing it muft get up to the branch, that he may view it from 

 above; it is for this reafon that the nefts are not more frequently 

 found. The neft is in courfe very fmall, and quite round ; the 

 outfide, for the moft part, is compofed of green mefs, common 

 on old pales and trees ; the infide of foft down, moftly collected 

 from the leaves of the great Mullein f, or the Silk-grafs$; but fome- 

 times they vary the texture, making ufe of Flaw, Hemp, Hairs,, 

 and other foft materials : they lay two eggs of the fize of a pea, 

 which are white, and not bigger at one end than the other. 



The above account of the manners will, in general, fuit all the 



birds of this genus; for, as their tongues are made for faction, it 



is by this method alone that they can gain nourilhment *, no 



wonder, therefore, they can icarcely be kept alive by human 



artifice §. 



L'Oifeau- 



* Not always, as it is often known to take up with fome low bujb, or a To- 

 lacco-Jlalk ; I have one of thefe fixed to the fide of a pod of Ocra *. 

 f Verbafcum. Lin. % Perifloca. Lin. 



•_§ My friend Captain Davies informs me, that he kept thefe birds alive for 



* Ilibifcui tfculintut. Lin. 



5 F 2 fwr 



