270 THE LANGUAGE OF BIRDS. 
I restored it to liberty, and it flew off to the withered 
top of a pear-tree, where it sat for some time dressing 
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, ex- 
amines 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 gene- 
rally believed to have been taken in by accident. 
The few opportunities which Europeans have to 
