28 



HUMMING-BIRD 



is continued round the stem of the branch, to which it closely ad- 

 heres ; and, when viewed from below, appears a mere mossy knot 

 or accidental protuberance. The eggs are two, pure white, and of 

 equal thickness at both ends. The nest and eggs in the plate were 

 copied with great precision, and by actual measurement, from one 

 just taken in from the woods. On a person^s approaching their 

 nest, the little proprietors dart around with a humming sovmd, 

 passing frequently within a few inches of one^s head ; and should 

 the young be newly hatched, the female will resume her place on 

 the nest even while you stand within a yard or two of the spot. 

 The precise period of incubation I am unable to give ; but the 

 young are in the habit, a short time before they leave the nest, of 

 thrusting their bills into the mouths of their parents, and sucking 

 what they have brought them. I never could perceive that they 

 carried them any animal food ; tho, from circumstances that will 

 presently be mentioned, I think it highly probable they do. As 

 I have found their nests with eggs so late as the twelfth of July, I 

 do not doubt but that they frequently, and perhaps usually, raise 

 two brood in the same season. 



The Humming-bird is extremely fond of tubular flowers, and 

 I have often stopt, with pleasure, to observe his manoeuvres among 

 the blossoms of the trumpet flower. When arrived before a thicket 

 of these that are full blown, he poises, or suspends himself on wing, 

 for the space of two or three seconds, so steadily, that his wings 

 become invisible, or only like a mist ; and you can plainly distin- 

 guish the pupil of his eye looking round with great quickness and 

 circumspection; the glossy golden green of his back, and the fire 

 of his throat, dazzling in the sun, form altogether a most interest- 

 ing appearance. The position into which his body is usually thrown 

 while in the act of thrusting his slender tubular tongue into the 

 flower, to extract its sweets, is exhibited in the figure on the plate. 

 When he alights, which is frequently, he always prefers the small 

 dead twigs of a tree, or bush, where he dresses and arranges his 



