194 THE RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD. 



Humming-birds were kept, no appearance of a nest was to be seen, although 

 the birds had frequently been observed caressing each other. Some have 

 been occasionally kept confined in our Middle Districts, but I have not 

 ascertained that any one survived a winter. 



The Humming-bird does not shun mankind so much as birds generally do. 

 It frequently approaches flowers in the windows, or even in rooms when the 

 windows are kept open, during the extreme heat of the day, and returns, 

 when not interrupted, as long as the flowers are unfaded. They are 

 extremely abundant in Louisiana during spring and summer, and wherever 

 a fine plant of the trumpet-flower is met with in the woods, one or more 

 Humming-birds are generally seen about it, and now and then so many as 

 ten or twelve at a time. They are quarrelsome, and have frequent battles in 

 the air, especially the' male birds. Should one be feeding on a flower, and 

 another approach it, they are both immediately seen to rise in the air, 

 twittering and twirling in a spiral manner until out of sight. The conflict 

 over, the victor immediately returns to the flower. 



If comparison might enable you, kind reader, to form some tolerably 

 accurate idea of their peculiar mode of flight, and their appearance when on 

 wing, I would say, that were both objects of the same colour, a large sphinx 

 or moth, when moving from one flower to another, and in a direct line, 

 comes nearer the Humming-bird in aspect than any other object with which 

 I am acquainted. 



Having heard several persons remark that these little creatures had been 

 procured, with less injury to their plumage, by shooting them with water, I 

 was tempted to make the experiment, having been in the habit of killing 

 them either with remarkably small shot, or with sand. However, finding 

 that even when within a few paces, I seldom brought one to the ground when 

 I used water instead of shot, and was moreover obliged to clean my gun 

 after every discharge, I abandoned the scheme, and feel confident that it can 

 never have been used with material advantage. I have frequently secured 

 some by employing an insect-net, and were this machine used with 

 dexterity, it would afford the best means of procuring Humming-birds. 



I have represented several of these pretty and most interesting birds, in 

 various positions, feeding, caressing each other, or sitting on the slender 

 stalks of the trumpet-flower and pluming themselves. The diversity of 

 action and attitude thus exhibited, may, I trust, prove sufficient to present a 

 faithful idea of their appearance and manners. A figure of the nest you will 

 also find has been given; it is generally placed low, on the horizontal branch 

 of any kind of tree, seldom more than twenty feet from the ground. They 

 are far from being particular in this matter, as I have often found a nest 

 attached by one side only to a twig of a rose-bush, currant, or the strong 



