HUMMING-BIEDS. 
67 
that the object of tlieir incessant sallies on the wing was 
the capture of minute insects; so minute that thej 
were generally undistinguishable to the human eye. Yet 
the action of the bird showed that something was pursued 
and taken ; and though, from the extreme rapidity of their 
motions, I could not often see the capture, yet several times 
I did detect the snap of the beak, and once or twice wit- 
nessed the taking of some little fly, just large enough to be 
discerned in the air. Moreover, the flights were sometimes 
very short : a leap out upon the wing to the distance of a 
foot or two, and then a return to the perch, just as the true 
fly-catchers do; which indeed the huinmi]]g-birds are, to 
all intents and purposes, and most accomplished ones. I 
judge that, on a low estimate, each captured on the wing 
at least three insects per minute, and that, with few inter- 
vals, incessantly, from dawn to dusk. Abroad I do not 
think quite so many would be taken in the air, the more 
normal w^ay being, I presume, the securing of the minute 
creatures that inhabit the tubes of flowers ; yet we perpe- 
tually see them hawking, even at liberty. My captives 
would occasionally fly to the walls, and pick from the spi- 
ders^ webs wdth which they were draped"^/^ 
* Birds of Jamaica, pp. 122, 123. 
