106 
HUMMING-BIBDS. 
water during the passage, and hatched two young ones. 
The mother, however, did not long survive, but the 
young were brought to England, and continued for 
some time in the possession of Lady Hammond. The 
little creatures readily took honey from the lips of Lady 
Hammond, and though the one did not live long, the 
other survived for at least two months from the time 
of their arrival.” 
The food of the humming-birds was always con- 
sidered to be only the honey or sweet juices extracted 
from the nectaria of flowers ; but later observations 
have proved that this alone was not sufficient to pre- 
serve even such small bodies j and when we compare 
the structure of the tongue with that of birds which 
use that member for darting suddenly out and catch- 
ing up small objects, we shall find considerable resem- 
blance, and the adaptation is farther confirmed by the 
reality of their food being in a measure insectivorous. 
Audubon found even coleopterous insects in their 
stomach, and Wilson observes — “ I have seen the 
humming-bird, for half an hour at a time, darting at 
those little groups of insects that dance in the air in a 
fine summer evening, retiring to an adjoining twig to 
rest, and renewing the attack with a dexterity that 
sets all other fly-catchers at defiance." And in all 
the deep tubular flowers in which they so much delight, 
such as the different datura, the bignonaceae, &c., I 
have no doubt that insects are as often withdrawn! by 
their active and viscid tongue as any portion of the 
honey. 
