HUMMING BIRD. 
209 
^fasshopper, generally uttered while passing from 
tjll to flower, or when engaged in fights with his 
oiv’s ; for, when two males meet at the same bush, 
to 
ui^Yataufs ascend in the air, chirping, darting and 
,, yhllo- around each other, till tho evo i.s no Inno-pp 
around each other, till the eye is no longer 
to follow them. The conqueror, however, gene- 
q‘‘y returns to the place, to reap the fruits of his 
i^^tory. j have seen him attack, and for a few 
in ?*®ut8 tease the king bird ; and have also seen him, 
turn, assaulted by a humble-bee, n liich he soon 
Ij.. tn flight. He is one of those few birds that are 
Sjj^*'^®rsa]ly beloved ; and amidst the sweet dewy 
a ^hity of a summer’s morning, his appearance among 
tf ] ‘trbours of honeysuckles, and beds of flowers, is 
V interesting. 
"When morning dawns, and the blest sun again 
hifts his red glories from the eastern main. 
Then through our woodbines, wet with glittering dews, 
The flower-ied hiiinndug bird hia round pui-sues ; 
Sips, with inserted tube, the honey’d blooms, 
And chirps his gratitude as round he roams ; 
While richest roses, though iit crimson drest, 
Shrink from the splendour of his gorgeous breast; 
What heav’niy tints in mingling radiance fly ! 
Each rapid movement gives a different dye ; 
Eike scales of burnish’d gold they dazzling shew, 
■Now sink to shade — now like a furnace glow 1 
singularity of this little bird has induced many 
to attempt to raise them from the nest, and 
Vij them to the cage. Mr Coffer, of Fairfax county, 
a gentleman who has jraid great attention to 
''*e aud peculiarities of our native birds, told 
CjJ ‘hat he raised, and kept two, for some months, in a 
’’"PPb'h'S' them with honey dissolved in water, on 
he, ' they readily fed. As the sweetness of the liquid 
'ia,p'^®htly brought small Hies and gnats about the cage, 
the birds amused themselves by snapping at 
' On wing, and swallowing them with eagerness, so 
"t- ti. o 
