312 HUMMING-BIRD. 



following fact is also well attested. A young Gentleman, a few days 

 before he sailed from Jamaica for England, met with a female Hum- 

 ming-Bird sitting on the nest and eggs, and cutting off the twig, 

 he brought all together on board. The bird became sufficiently 

 tame, so as to suffer herself to be fed with honey and water during 

 the passage, and hatched two young ones. The mother, however, 

 did not long survive, but the young were brought to England, and 

 continued for some time in the possession of Lady Hamond. The late 

 Sir H. Englefield, Bart, and Hans Sloane Stanley, Esq. both wit- 

 nesses of the circumstance, informed me, that these little creatures 

 readily took honey from the lips of Lady H. with their bills ; one of 

 them did not live long, but the other survived at least two months 

 from the time of their arrival. I am not positive of its being the 

 precise species T have arranged it under, but am inclined to think 

 so, from the description of the parent bird, and especially as it is the 

 most common one found in that Island. 



32— NEGRO HUMMING-BIRD. 



Trochilus ater, Maxim. Trav. i. p. 322. 



LENGTH five inches. Bill slightly curved ; body nearly 

 black, only in some places of a shining grey and copper-colour ; sides 

 under the wings, rump, and tail, white ; on the last a border of a 

 violet-colour, the middle feathers varying with dark green, and steel 

 blue. 



Inhabits Brazil ; described as above by Prince Maximilian, who 

 esteems it a species not before described. 



