The Humming-Bird’s Food. 
The notes that have recently appeared in Science regarding the 
humming-birds food, would seem to show that the bird’s taste 
vanes with the locality. In southern New York their favorite 
ower is the swamp-thistle ( Cirsium muticum). No better nlace 
could be selected for studying the feeding-habits of the ruby! 
li. an a Sp0t where these flowers abound. Dr Gibbs 
thinks the individual flowers of the red clover too small for the 
ruby-throat s attention, but in the thistles the flowers are even 
firme r n e !! ha , S b6en Said that the bee & ets Poflen but not 
honey from the thistle, it would appear that the birds visit these 
flowers for insects. There is scarcely a flower that contains so 
many minute insects as a thistle-head. Examine one with a 
lens and it will be found to contain many insects that can hardly 
be seen with the unaided eye. If the ruby-throat eats insects at 
all, these are the ones it would take; and because the larger ones 
remained the observer might conclude that none were eaten. 
Birghampton, New York, Nov. 21. .. „ WlLLARD NMDLUTE. 
/ ' *** 
/ 'j kf Aut Si I V 
23 . Trochilus colubris. Ruby-throated Hummingbird. — Equally 
Pickens Co. comm on over the wooded mountains and in the open valleys below. I 
So. Carolina, did not try the experiment, but it is averred that corn whiskey, with 
sugar dissolved in it, placed in flowers much affected by these little 
nvemies intoxicates them so effectually that their capture by the hand is 
* ^ ~ «• T rvrvrviic A lllr TT 1 1 Ton ion 
rendered an easy matter 
n.iiu V Ul>i5 
v 
renucicu 
■•fW fl3tqw p-i;q u jo “H s F 3 !' - 
•v moo -m i° u i ‘P unoJ 1 ' t881 
— -snasnqoBssuiAI u ’ ( 'stsuMiJo . 
III OU CllCblUrtU^ Lliai uiui luic uj uaiiu 10 
,S. Carolina. Loomis.. Auk ^VJJ. Jan. 1R90. p. SVT 
Cl J ~ T l . 
ozz 
U-idvl 
... t -avurl D313A00 31H BUI.m33S Ul 3-4EI.m4.lu} s 1 
mil oifl u O • • P3U.IOI-J 3111 JO 1S3U 3111 si l! ‘jaipouis 
3200! joj psqooi 3Auq I 5 S3U 31,0 s ! }1 A ** ° 
suissdiE Eiiqdoui3J3 i ° sS3 3 P UB ,S3N qX 
roj uuqi 3-1 
ejeSetn ui punoj 
„„ a uci-oy, mis little bifcTwas soon 
taught to drink from a small phial, holding about two teaspoonfuls of 
sugar and water (about one-third sugar), that was suspended by a string 
to the window casing. It was but a day or so before it seemed per- 
fectly contented, not showing the least fear, but seemingly growing 
stronger as well as larger in its new home. 
Miss Brubaker thinks the bird was not an old one, as its tail-feathers 
grew considerably after she had it. She says that at first they kept a 
variety of cut flowers in the room with it, but it barely alighted upon 
them, flying at once to the bottle which it had learned to appreciate. 
Somewhat after the manner of obtaining nectar from a flower, it would 
sip a moment at the bottle and then dart away : but it was not long in 
finding that the supply of sweetened water was inexhaustible, and that 
there was no necessity of hastening its meal. At times it would drink 
so much that its wings were unable to sustain the weight of the body, 
and a fall to the floor was the result of its excessive fondness for this 
artificial nectar. When left to itself and no check put upon its drinking, 
it would consume at least half the contents of the phial daily at least 
one-half as much as its own bulk. 
“We are certain,” she writes, “that for at least a month the biid had 
access to no flowers whatever, thus making it certain that the sweetened 
water furnished it its sole nourishment, and during this captivity it did 
not show the first signs of diminishing strength.” 
At the approach of cold weather it was placed in a cage, in which its 
little history was brought to a close by its accidentally entangling one of 
its claws in a loose wire which secured a small perch in the cage, and 
thus suspended, with its head downward, it was found by Miss Brubaker 
the next morning — another ‘bunch’ of rumbled feathers. — Samuel 
Wells Willard, West De Peru. Wise. 
Auk, 2, April, 1886. p. Z / S'- JZ f9 ■ 
