132 
NORTHERN HUMMING-BIRD. 
the little proprietors dart around with a humming 
sound. The precise period of incubation I am unable 
to give ; but the young are in the habit, a short time 
before they leave the nest, of thrusting their bills into 
the mouths of their parents, and sucking what they 
have brought them. As I have found their nests 
with eggs so late as the 12th July, I do not doubt but 
that they frequently, and perhaps usually, raise two 
broods in the same season. 
“ Their only note is a single chirp, not louder than 
that of a small cricket or grashopper, generally uttered 
while hovering from flower to flower, or when engaged 
in a fight with his fellows ; for when two males meet 
at the same bush or flowers, a battle instantly takes 
place ; and the combatants ascend in the air chirping, 
darting, and circling around each other, till the eye is 
no longer able to follow them. The conqueror, how- 
ever, generally returns to the place to reap the fruits 
of his victory. I have seen them attack, and for a few 
moments tease the king-bird ; and have also seen him, 
in his turn, assaulted by a humble bee, which he soon 
put to flight. 
“ The singularity of this little bird has induced 
many persons to attempt to raise them from the nest, 
and accustom them to the cage. Mr Coffer of Fair- 
fax, county Virginia, raised and kept two for some 
months in a cage, supplying them with honey dis- 
solved in water, on which they readily fed. As the 
sweetness of the liquid frequently brought small flies 
and gnats about the cage, the birds snapped and 
