Birds. 1813 



place the new material, pressing, and arranging, and interweaving the whole with her 

 beak, while she fashioned the cup-like form of the interior by the pressure of her white 

 breast, moving round and round as she sat. My presence appeared to be no hindrance 

 to her proceedings, though only a few feet distant ; at length she left again, and I left 

 the place also. On the 8th of April I visited the cave again, and found the nest per- 

 fected, and containing two eggs, which were not hatched on the 1st of May, on which 

 day I sent Sam to endeavour to secure both dam and nest. He found her sitting, and 

 had no difficulty in capturing her, which, with the nest and its contents, he carefully 

 brought down to me. I transferred it, having broken one egg by accident, to a cage, 

 and put in the bird; she was mopish, however, and quite neglected the nest, as she 

 did also some flowers which I inserted ; sitting moodily on a perch. The next 

 morning she was dead." — p. 103. 



" At my first attempt [to keep humming-birds in confinement], in the spring of 

 1845, I transferred such as I succeeded in bringing alive, to cages immediately on 

 their arrival at the house, and though they did not beat themselves, they soon sunk 

 under the confinement. Suddenly they would fall to the floor of the cage, and lie 

 motionless with closed eyes ; if taken into the hand, they would perhaps seem to re- 

 vive for a few moments ; then throw back the pretty head, or toss it to and fro, as if 

 in great suffering, expand the wings, open the eyes, slightly puff up the feathers of 

 the breast, and die, usually without any convulsive struggle. This was the fate of my 

 first attempts. 



" In the autumn, however, they began to be numerous again upon the mountain, 

 and having, on the 13th of November, captured two young males, sucking the pretty 

 pink flowers of Urena lobata I brought them home in a covered basket. The tail- 

 feathers of the one were undeveloped, those of the other half their full length. I did 

 not cage them, but turned them out into the open room, in which the daily work of 

 preparing specimens was carried on, having first secured the doors and windows. 

 They were lively but not wild ; playful towards each other, and tame with respect to 

 myself, sitting unrestrained for several seconds at a time on my finger. I collected a 

 few flowers and placed them in a vase on a high shelf, and to these they resorted im- 

 mediately. But I soon found that they paid attention to none but Asclepias curassa- 

 vica, and slightly to a large Ipomea. On this I again went out, and gathered a large 

 bunch of Asclepias, and was pleased to observe, that on the moment of my entering 

 the room, one flew to the nosegay and sucked while I held it in my hand. The other 

 soon followed, and then both these lovely creatures were buzzing together within an 

 inch of my face, probing the flowers so eagerly as to allow their bodies to be touched 

 without alarm. These flowers being placed in another glass, they visited each bou- 

 quet in turn, now and then flying after each other playfully through the room, or 

 alighting on various objects. Though occasionally they flew against the window, 

 they did not flutter and beat themselves at it, but seemed well content with their pa- 

 role. As they flew, I repeatedly heard them snap the beak, at which times they 

 doubtless caught minute flies. After some time, one of them suddenly sunk down in 

 one corner, and on being taken up seemed dying : it had perhaps struck itself in fly- 

 ing. It lingered awhile, and died. The other continued his vivacity ; perceiving 

 that he 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, and filled with juice of sugar-cane. I then took a large Ipomea, and having 

 cut off the bottom, I slipped the flower over the tube, so that the quill took the place 

 V 2 K 



