288 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



completely numbed it, so that it was again taken to the house a mere bunch of 

 rumpled feathers — no life then being apparent. A slight warming quite unexpect- 

 edly revived it, and it was but a short time before it opened its eyes and flew to a 

 nail, and then immediately began to rearrange its plumage. As flowers aud sweet- 

 ened water were offered to this captive before it was taken to the arbor, without its 

 once noticing them, Miss Brubaker was rather at a loss to know how to feed it ; but 

 at last she conceived of placing some sugar aud water in a conspicuous gladiolus 

 blossom, which the Humming Bird soon discovered and visited, drinking greedily the 

 honey that was in the blossom. After this it became quite lively, flying from its nail 

 to some dried flowers and grasses in another room, where it had rested during the 

 two days it had remained in the house without food or water. 



With the aid of a petunia blossom as a decoy, this little bird was soon taught to 

 drink from a small phial, holding about two teaspoonfuls of sugar and water (about 

 one-third sugar), that was suspended by a string to the window casing. It was but 

 a day or so before it seemed perfectly contented, not showing the least fear, but seem- 

 ingly growing stronger as well as larger in its new home. 



Miss Brubaker thinks the bird was not an old one, as its tail feathers grew consid- 

 erably after she had it. She says that at first they kept a variety of cut flowers in 

 the room with it, but it barely alighted upon them, flying at once to the bottle which 

 it had learned to appreciate. Somewhat after the manner of obtaining nectar from 

 a flower, it would sip a moment at the bottle and then dart away ; but it was not 

 long in finding that the supply of sweetened water was inexhaustible, and that there 

 was no necessity of hastening its meal. At times it would drink so mnch that its 

 wings were unable to sustain the weight of the body, aud a fall to the floor was the 

 result of its excessive fondness for this artificial nectar. When left to itself and no 

 check put upon its drinking, it would consume at least half the contents of the phial 

 daily — at least one-half as much as its own bulk. 



" We are certain," she writes, " that for at least a month the bird had access to no 

 flowers whatever, thus making it certain that the sweetened water furnished it its 

 sole nourishment, and during this captivity it did not show the first signs of dimin- 

 ishing strength." 



At the approach of cold weather it was placed in a cage, in which its little history 

 was brought to a close by its accidentally eutangling one of its claws in a loose wire 

 which secured a small perch into the cage, and thus suspended with its head down- 

 ward it was found by Miss Brubaker the next morning — another "bunch" of rumpled 

 feathers. 



The following very interesting description of the manner of feeding 

 of the Long-tailed Humming Bird (Aithurus polytmus) is to be found in 

 that delightful little book, Gosse's Birds of Jamaica : 



Perceiving that he [the captive] had exhausted the flowers, I prepared a tube, 

 made of the barrel of a goose-quill, which I inserted into the cork of a bottle to 

 secure its steadiness and upright position, aud filled with juice of sugar-cane. I 

 then took a large Ipomcea, and, having cut off the bottom, I slipped the flower over 

 the tube, so that the quill took the place of the nectary of the flower. The bird 

 flew to it in a moment, clung to the bottle rim, and bringing his beak perpendicular, 

 thrust it into the tube. It was at once evident that the repast was agreeable, for he 

 continued pumping for several seconds, and, on his flying off, I found the quill emp- 

 tied. As he had torn off the flower in his eagerness for more and even followed the 

 fragments of the corolla as they lay on the table to search them, I refilled the quill 

 and put a blossom of the Marvel of Peru into it, so that the flower expanded over 

 the top. The little toper found it again, and, after drinking freely, withdrew his 

 beak, but the blossom was adhering to it as a sheath. This incumbrance he pres- 

 ently got rid of, and then (which was most interesting to me) he returned imme- 

 diately and, inserting his beak into the bare quill, finished the contents, Jt wag 



