30 



HUMMING-BIRD, 



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 Mu- 

 seum, 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 dart- 

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

 after flies. In the summer of 1803 a nest of young Humming-birds 

 w as 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 un- 

 dertook 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, thro the winter. Unfortunately, however, 

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

 jured itself that it soon after died. 



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

 deprived of the animating influence of the sun beams, droops and 



