MY HUMMING BIRDS. 
Ill 
peared to notice. We moved closer to watch tliem to better 
advantage, and, in doing so, changed our relative position 
to the sun. At once the thing was revealed to me. I 
caught friend Euby in the very act of abstracting a small 
spider, with the point of his long beak, from the centre of 
one of those beautiful circular webs of the garden spider, 
that so abounds throughout the South. The thing was done 
so daintily, that he did not stir the dew-drops which, now 
glittering in the golden sun, revealed the gossamer tracery 
all diamond-strung. 
Hah ! we've got your secret, my friends! — Hah! ha, 
hah !" 
And we clapped and danced in triumph. Our presence 
did not disturb them in the least, and we watched them 
catching spiders for half an hour. They frequently came 
within two feet of our faces, and we could distinctly see 
them pluck the little spider from the centre of its wheel 
were it lies, and swallow it entire. After this we let them 
out daily, and, although we watched them closely and with 
the most patient care, we never could see them touch the 
spiders again, until the usual interval of about a fortnight had 
elapsed, when they attacked them again as vigorously as ever 
— ^but the foray of one morning seemed to suffice. We 
also observed them carefully, to ascertain whether they ate 
any other insects than these spiders- — but, although we 
brought them every variety of the smallest and most ten- 
der that we could find, they did not notice them at all — 
but if we would shut them up past the time, until they began 
to look drooping, and then bring one of those little spiders 
along with other small insects, they would snap up the spider 
soon enough, but pay no attention to the others. 
We were thoroughly convinced, after careful experiment 
upon two families of them, that they neither live entirely 
upon the nectar of flowers — as all the old naturalists sup- 
posed — nor upon various small insects in addition to the 
nectar, as Mr. Audubon asserts. The fact is, they can live 
