592 
SLENDER-BILLED BIRDS. 
hours more it becomes tame enough to sip its favorite 
beverage from a saucer, in the interval flying backwards 
and forwards in the room for mere exercise, and then 
resting on some neighbouring elevated object. In dark, 
or rainy weather, they seem to pass the time chiefly doz- 
ing on the perch. They are also soon so familiar as to 
come to the hand that feeds them. In cold nights, or at 
the approach of frost, the pulsation of this little dweller 
in the sunbeam, becomes nearly as low as in the torpid 
«tate of the dormouse ; but on applying warmth, the almost 
stagnant circulation revives, and slowly increases to the 
usual state. 
The Humming-Bird is only 3J inches in length, and 4\ in alar ex- 
tent. The bill, legs, feet, and eyes black. The feathers of the breast 
in the male, according to the light in which they are viewed, vary 
from a deep brownish black, to a fiery crimson or glowing orange. — 
In the young birds the bill is broader and shorter, and traces of the 
rigid metallic glossed feathers begin to appear on the throat, towards 
the close of autumn. At first the chin for a little space is palish-yel- 
low. 
