THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
267 
While richest roses, though in crimson drest, 
Shrink from the splendour of his gorgeous breast ; 
What heavenly tints in mingling radiance fly ! 
Each rapid movement gives a different dye ; 
Like scales of burnished gold they dazzling shew, 
Now sink to shade, now like a furnace glow ! 
The singularityof this little bird has induced many 
persons to attempt to raise them from the nest, and 
accustom them to the cage. Mr. Coffer, of Fairfax 
county, Virginia, a gentleman who has paid great 
attention to the manners and peculiarities of our 
native birds, told me, that he raised and kept two, 
for some months, 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 
museum, 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 
