NORTHERN HUMMING-BIRD. 
133 
swallowed them with eagerness, so that these insects 
formed no inconsiderable part of their food.” And 
in the summer of 1 803, Wilson himself succeeded in 
raising and keeping some young ones for nearly three 
months, and might have extended the period, had 
they not been injured by flying about the room. He 
thus relates the circumstance : — “ In the summer of 
1803, a nest of young humming-birds was brought 
me, that were nearly fit to fly. One of them actually 
flew out by the window the same evening and falling 
against a wall, was killed. The other refused food, and 
the next morning I could but just perceive that it had 
life. A lady of the house undertook to be its nurse, 
placed it in her bosom, and as it began to revive, dis- 
solved a little sugar in her mouth, into which she 
thrust its bill, and it sucked with great avidity, and 
in this manner it was brought up until fit for the cage. 
I kept it upwards of three months, supplied it with 
loaf-sugar dissolved in water, which it preferred to 
honey and water, gave it fresh flowers every morning 
sprinkled with the liquid, and surrounded the space in 
which I kept it with gauze, that it might not injure 
itself. It appeared gay, active, and full of spirit, 
hovering from flower to flower, as if in its native wilds, 
and always expressed, by its motions and chirping, 
great pleasure at seeing fresh flowers introduced into 
its cage. 
“ This little bird is extremely susceptible of cold, 
and if long deprived of the animating influence of the 
