40 



EUBT-THEOATED. 



time to time, great numbers of these birds, have examined 

 the contents of the stomach with suitable glasses, and in three 

 cases out of four have found them to consist of broken frag- 

 ments of insects. In many subjects entire objects of the 

 coleopterous (that is, beetle) class, but very small, were found 

 unbroken. It is well known that the Humming Bird is par- 

 ticularly fond of tubular flowers, where numerous small insects 

 of this kind resort to feed on the farina, etc.; and there is 

 every reason for believing that he is as often in search of 

 these insects as of honey, and that the former compose at 

 least as great a portion of his usual sustenance as the latter. 

 If this food be so necessary for the parents, there is no doubt 

 but the young also occasionally partake of it. 



The flight of the Humming Bird from flower to flower greatly 

 resembles that of a bee; but is so much more rapid, that the 

 latter appears a mere tortoise to him. He poises himself on 

 wing, while he thrusts his long, slender, tubulous tongue into 

 the flowers in search of food. He sometimes enters a room 

 by the window, examines the bouquets of flowers, and passes 

 out by the opposite door or window. He has been known to 

 take refuge in a hot-house during the cold nights of autumn, 

 to go regularly out in the morning, and to return as regularly 

 in the evening for several days together. 



To enumerate all the flowers of which this little bird is fond 

 would be to repeat the names of half of our American flora. 

 From the blossoms of the towering poplar, or tulip tree, through 

 a thousand intermediate flowers, to those of the humble lark- 

 spur, he ranges at will, and almost incessantly. Every period 

 of the season produces a fresh multitude of new favourites. 

 Towards the month of September there is a yellow flower, 

 which grows in great luxuriance along the sides of creeks and 

 rivers, and in low moist situations; it grows to the height of 

 two or three feet, and the flower, which is about the size of 

 a thimble, hangs in the shape of a cup of liberty above a 

 luxuriant growth of green leaves. It is the Bahamma noli 

 me icmgere of botanists, (the Yellow Balsam, or Touch-me-not; 

 so called on account of the violence with which the seeds are 

 thrown out of the capsule when ripe,) and is the greatest 

 favourite with the Humming Bird of all our flowers. In some 

 places where these plants abound, you may see at one time 



