822 TROPICAL NATURE Iv 
tamed a number of the Ruby-throat in the United States. He 
found that when fed for three weeks on syrup they drooped, 
but after being let free for a day or two they would return to 
the open cage for more of the syrup. Some which had been 
thus tamed and set free returned the following year, and at 
once flew straight to the remembered little cup of sweets. 
Mr. Gosse in Jamaica also kept some in captivity, and found 
the necessity of giving them insect food; and he remarks 
that they were very fond of a small ant that swarmed on the 
syrup with which they were fed. It is strange that, with all 
this previous experience and information, those who have 
attempted to bring live humming-birds to this country have 
fed them exclusively on syrup; and the weakness produced 
by this insufficient food has no doubt been the chief cause of 
their death on, or very soon after, arrival. A box of ants 
would not be difficult to bring as food for them, but even 
finely-chopped meat or yolk of egg would probably serve, in 
the absence of insects, to supply the necessary proportion of 
animal food. 
Nests 
The nests of the humming-birds are, as might be expected, 
beautiful objects, some being no larger inside than the half of 
a walnut shell, These small cup-shaped nests are often placed 
in the fork of a branch, and the outside is sometimes beauti- 
fully decorated with pieces of lichen, the body of the nest 
being formed of cottony substances and the inside lined with 
the finest and most silky fibres. Others suspend their nests 
to creepers hanging over water, or even over the sea; and 
the Pichincha humming-bird once attached its nest to a straw- 
rope hanging from the roof of a shed. Others again build 
nests of a hammock-form attached to the face of rocks by 
spiders’ web; while the little forest-haunting species fasten 
their nests to the points or to the under-sides of palm-leaves 
or other suitable foliage. They lay only one or two white 
eggs. 
Geographical Distribution and Variation 
Most persons know that humming-birds are found only in 
America ; but it is not so generally known that they are 
almost exclusively tropical birds, and that the few species that 
