212 HUMMING BIRD. 



some time dressing its disordered plumage, and then shot off like a 

 meteor. 



The flight of the Humming Bird from flower to flower, greatly resem- 

 bles that of a bee, but is so much more rapid, that the latter appears a 

 mere loiterer to him. He poises himself 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 to return as regularly in the 

 evening, for several days together. 



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 observers have indeed remarked, that they have found evi- 

 dent 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 observa- 

 tions made on the living bird, or by dissection of the newly-killed one, 

 have rendered this mistaken opinion almost general in Europe. For 

 myself I can speak decisively on this subject. I have seen the Hum- 

 ming Bird for half an hour at a time darting at those little groups of 

 insects that dance in the air in a fine summer evening, retiring to an 

 adjoining twig to rest, and renewing the attack with a dexterity that 

 sets all our other Flycatchers 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 coleopterous class, but very small, were found 

 ur.broken. The observations of Mr. Coffer as detailed above, and the 

 remarks 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 fond, would 

 be to repeat the names of half our American Flora. From the blos- 

 soms of the towering poplar, or tulip tree, through a thousand inter- 

 mediate flowers to those of the humble larkspur, he ranges at will, and 

 almost incessantly. Every period of the season produces a fresh multi- 

 tude of new favorites. Towards the month of September there is a 



