HUMMING BIRD. 



181 



Charles Wilson Peale, proprietor of the museum, tells me 

 that he had two young humming birds, which he raised from 

 the nest. They used to fly about the room ; and would fre- 

 quently perch on Mrs Peale's shoulder to be fed. When the 

 sun shone strongly in the chamber, he has observed them 

 darting after the motes that floated in the light, as flycatchers 

 would after flies. In the summer of 1803, a nest of young 

 humming birds was brought me, that were nearly fit to fly. 

 One of them actually flew out by the window the same evening, 

 and, falling against a wall, was killed. The other refused 

 food, and the next morning I could but just perceive that it 

 had life. A lady in the house undertook to be its nurse, 

 placed it in her bosom, and, as it began to revive, dissolved 

 a little sugar in her mouth, into which she thrust its bill, and 

 it sucked with great avidity. In this manner it was brought 

 up until fit for the cage. I kept it upwards of three months, 

 supplied it with loaf-sugar dissolved in water, which it 

 preferred to honey and water, gave it fresh flowers every 

 morning sprinkled with the liquid, and surrounded the space 

 in which I kept it with gauze, that it might not injure itself. 

 It appeared gay, active, and full of spirit, hovering from flower 

 to flower as if in its native wilds, and always expressed by its 

 motions and chirping, great pleasure at seeing fresh flowers 

 introduced to its cage. Numbers of people visited it from 

 motives of curiosity ; and I took every precaution to preserve 

 it, if possible, through the winter. Unfortunately, however, 

 by some means it got at large, and flying about the room, so 

 injured itself that it soon after died. 



This little bird is extremely susceptible of cold, and, if long 

 deprived of the animating influence of the sunbeams, droops 

 and soon dies. A very beautiful male was brought me this 

 season (1809), which I put into a wire cage, and placed in a 

 retired shaded part of the room. After fluttering about for 

 some time, the weather being uncommonly cool, it clung by 

 the wires, and hung in a seemingly torpid state for a whole 

 forenoon. No motion whatever of the lungs could be per- 



