346 HUMMING-BIRD. 



little go out again ;* when they come to a flower which is on the point 

 of withering, or contains little or no nectar, they pluck it off as it 

 were in anger, by which the ground is often strewed with them. 

 The female frequently builds the nest on the middle of a branch of 

 a tree, and it being so small, can rarely be seen unless the spectator 

 can view it from above, and for this reason, the nests are not more 

 frequently met with, though now and then the bird will attach the 

 nest to some low bush, or a tobacco stalk ; and I have once seen 

 it fixed to the side of a Pod of Okra.f The nest is composed of fine 

 cotton, or soft down, mostly collected from the leaves of the great 

 Mullein £ or silk Grass, § varying the texture by sometimes using 

 flax, hemp, hair, &c. the outside, for the most part, composed of 

 green moss, or lichen, growing on the bark of the peach trees, &c. 

 the eggs are oblong, white, and two in number, of the size of a pea, 

 not bigger at one end than the other; as they neither feed on insects 

 nor fruit, they cannot long be kept in confinement, though they have 

 been preserved alive for several weeks together, by feeding them 

 with sugar dissolved in water. This account of the manners will, 

 we presume, suit most, if not all birds of the Genus, for as their 

 tongues are made for suction, it is by this method alone that they can 

 gain nourishment ; no wonder, therefore, that they can scarcely be 

 kept alive by human artifice. || 



* They are often caught in this manner, as they first make to the cieling, as most of 

 the Moth tribe are seen to do; 



t Hibiscus esculentus. J Verbascum. § Periploca. 



|| I have been informed by General Davies, that he kept these birds alive for three 

 months, by the following method. He made an exact imitation of some of the tubular 

 flowers with paper, fastened round a tobacco pipe, and painted of a proper colour ; these 

 were placed in the cage where these little creatures were confined; and the bottoms of the 

 tubes filled with a mixture of brown sugar and water, as often as emptied, and he had the 

 pleasure of seeing them perform every action ; for they soon grew familiar, and took the 

 nourishment in the same manner as when ranging at large, though close under his eye. 

 Don Pedro Melo, Governor of Paraguay, kept some Humming-Birds, in a similar way, 

 for four months, when they perished by neglect. — Voy. d'Azara. Dr. Burnaby also men- 

 tions their being kept alive for two months ; the food given to them either honey or sugar, 

 mixed with water. — Burnab. Trav. p. 17. Note*. 



