HUMMING-BIRD. 31 



soon dies. A very beautiful male was brought me this season^ 

 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 seem- 

 ingly torpid state for a whole forenoon. No motion whatever of 

 the lungs could be perceived, on the closest inspection; tho at other 

 times this is remarkably observable; the eyes were shut; and when 

 touched by the finger it gave no signs of life or motion. I carried 

 it out to the open air, and placed it directly in the rays of the sun, 

 in a sheltered situation. In a few seconds respiration became very 

 apparent; the bird breathed faster and faster, opened its eyes, and 

 began to look about, with as much seeming vivacity as ever. After 

 it had completely recovered, I restored it to liberty; and it flew off 

 to the withered top of a pear tree, where it sat for some time dress- 

 ing its disordered plumage, and then shot off like a meteor. 



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 loiterer to him. He poises himself on wing, while 

 he thrusts his long slender tubular 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 cool nights of autumn; to go regularly out in the morning, and 

 to return as regularly in the evening, for several days together. 



The Humming-bird has, hitherto, been supposed to subsist 

 altogether on the honey, or liquid sweets, which it extracts from 

 flowers. One or two curious observers have indeed remarked, that 

 they have found evident fragments of insects in the stomach of this 

 species ; but these have been generally believed to have been taken 

 in by accident. The few opportunities which Europeans have to 

 determine this point by observations made on the living bird, or 

 by dissection of the newly-killed one, have rendered this mistaken 

 opinion almost general in Europe. For myself I can speak deci- 



