42 



ETJBT- THROATED . 



to make domestic pets of these beautiful little birds, nor that 

 much pains should have been bestowed to rear them from the 

 nest, and accustom them to a life of confinement; these efforts 

 have been sometimes successful; thus Mr. "Wilson relates that "a 

 gentleman of Yirginia, who had. paid great attention to the man- 

 ners and peculiarities of American birds, told me that he raised 

 and kept two of this species for some months in a cage, supplying 

 them with honey dissolved in water, on which they readily fed. 

 As the sweetness of the liquid frequently brought small flies and 

 gnats about the cage and cup, the birds amused themselves by 

 snapping at them on wing, and swallowing them with eagerness, 

 so that these insects formed no inconsiderable part of their food. 



Mr. 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 frequently 

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

 strongly into the chamber, he has observed them darting after 

 the motes that floated in the light, as Flycatchers would after 

 flies. In the summer of 1 803, 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 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 spirits, hovering from flower to 

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

 motions and chirpings great pleasure at seeing fresh flowers in- 

 troduced into its cage. Numbers of persons 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 



