The Humming-Bird’s Food. 
The notes that have recently appeared in Science regarding the 
umming-bird s food, would seem to show that the bird’s taste 
flowe' the l0Callty - In southern New York their favorite 
er is the swamp-thistle ( Cirsium muticum). No better place 
couid b 3 seiected for studying the feeding-habits of the ruby- 
n oats than a spot where these flowers abound. Dr Gibbs 
thinks the individual flowers ° fthered clover too 8malI for lhe 
ruby-throat s attention, but in the thistles the flowers are even 
hnni f l Ce li ha i S been Said that the bee sets pollen but not 
honey from the thistle, it would appear that the birds visit these 
tlfiwprs for inaopto Tlonm i„ „ a , , 
Food of the Hummingbird ( Trochilus colubris).— Somewhere it has 
been stated, that the Hummingbird derives the most of its nourishment 
from the minute insects which adhere to the nectar of flowers, and 
which are taken with the honey. Undoubtedly many insects are thus 
secured, and furnish their share of nutriment to the species, but in 
the following account of a Hummer in confinement, kindly furnished 
to me by Miss Hattie Brubaker, it will be seen that insects are not 
wholly essential to the maintenance of life, in Trochiluscolubris at 
least. 
The bird, she writes, was taken September I, near De Pere, Wis., and 
throve nicely until October 28, when it met an untimely death. After 
it had struggled in vain for nearly two day's to escape from a room into 
which it had accidentally flown, it was picked up in an exhausted condition 
and carefully placed out of doors in an arbor, in hopes of its recovering 
sufficiently to fly away. A severe cold rain that night completely 
numbed it, so that it was again taken to the house a mere bunch of 
rumpled feathers — no life then being apparent. A slight warming quite 
unexpectedly revived it, and it was but a short time before it opened its 
eyes and flew to a nail, and then immediately began to rearrange its 
plumage. As flowers and sweetened water were offered to this captive 
before it was taken to the arbor, without its once noticing them, Miss 
Brubaker was rather at a loss to know how to feed it; but at last she 
conceived of placing some sugar and water in a conspicuous gladiolus 
blossom, which the Hummingbird soon discovered and visited, drinking 
greedily the honey that was in the blossom. After this it became quite 
lively, flying from its nail to some dried flowers and grasses in another 
room, where it had rested during the two days it had remained in the 
house without food or water. 
With the aid of a petunia blossom as a decoy, this little bird was 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 stiing 
to the window casing. It was but a day or so before it seemed pei- 
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 tire 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 bird 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 Pere, Wise. 
Auk, 2, April, 1885. i>. ZtS'-Jlf*?- 
