AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
manners and peculiarities of our native birds, told me, that 
he raised and kept two, for some months, in a cage; sup- 
plying 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, told me, that he 
had two young Humming-birds which he raised from the 
nest. They used to fly about the room; and would fre- 
quently perch on Mrs. Peale’s shoulder to be fed. When 
the sun shone strongly into the chamber, he has observed 
them darting 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 manner it was brought up until fit 
for theeage. 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 ex- 
pressed by its motions and chirping, great pleasure at see- 
ing fresh flowers introduced to its cage. Numbers of 
people visited it from motives of curiosity, and I took 
every precaution to preserve it, if possible, through the 
winter. Unfortunately, however, by some means it got 
at large, and flying about the room, so injured itself that it 
soon after died. 
This little bird is extremely susceptible of cold, and 
if long deprived of the animating influence of the sun- 
beams, droops and soon dies. A very beautiful male was 
brought me this season, which I put into a wire cage, and 
placed in a retired, shaded part of the room. After flut- 
tering about for some time, the weather being uncommonly 
cool, it clung by the wires, and hung in a seemingly tor- 
pid state for a whole forenoon. No motion whatever of 
the lungs could be perceived, on the closest inspection, 
though at other times this is remarkably observable; the 
eyes were shut; and when touched by the finger it gave 
no signs of lifeor motion. I carried it out to the openair, 
and placed it directly in the rays of the sun, in a sheltered 
111 
situation. In afew seconds respiration became very appa- 
rent, the bird breathed faster and faster, opened its eyes, 
and began to look about, with as much seeming vivacity 
as ever. After it had completely recovered, I restored it 
to liberty; and it flew off to the withered top of a pear 
tree, where it sat for some time dressing its disordered 
plumage, and then shot off like a meteor. 
The flight of the Humming-bird from flower to flower, 
greatly resembles that of a bee, but is so much more rapid, 
that the latter appears a mere loitererto him. He poiseshim- 
self on wing, while he thrusts his long slender tubular tongue 
into the flowers in search of food. He sometimes enters a 
room by the window, examines the bouquets of flowers, 
and passes out by the opposite door or window. He has 
been known to take refuge in a hot-house during the cool 
nights of autumn; to go regularly out in the morning, and 
return as regularly in the evening, for several days to- 
gether. 
The Humming-bird has, hitherto, been supposed to 
subsist altogether on the honey, or liquid sweets, which it 
extracts from flowers. One or two curious dbservers have 
indeed remarked, that they have found evident fragments 
of insects in the stomach of this species; but these have 
been generally believed to have been taken in by accident. 
The few opportunities which Europeans have to determine 
this point by observations made on the living bird, or by 
dissection of the newly-killed one, havé rendered this 
mistaken opinion almost general in Europe. For myself, 
I can speak decisively on this subject. I have seen the 
Humming-bird for half an hour at a time darting at those 
little groups of insects that dance in the air in a fine sum- 
mer evening, retiring to an adjoining twig to rest, and re- 
newing the attack with a dexterity that sets all other Fly- 
catchers at defiance. I have opened from time to time 
great numbers of these birds; have examined the contents 
of the stomach with suitable glasses, and in three cases 
out of four, have found these to consist of broken fragments 
of insects. In many subjects entire insects of the coleop- 
terous class, but very small, were found unbroken. The 
observations of Mr. Coffer as detailed above, and the re- 
marks of my worthy friend, Mr. Peale, are corroborative 
of these facts. It is well known that the Humming-bird 
is particularly fond of tubular flowers where numerous 
small insects of this kind resort to feed on the farina, &c. 
and there is every reason for believing that he is as often 
in search of these insects as of honey; and that the former 
compose at least as great a portion of his usual sustenance 
as the latter. If this food be so necessary for the parents, 
there is no doubt but the young also occasionally partake 
of it. 
To enumerate all the flowers of which this little bird is 
