HUMMING BIRD. 
211 
and hung* in a seemingly torpid state for a whole fore- 
noon. No motion whatever of the lungs could be 
perceived, on the closest inspection; though, at other 
times, this is remarkably observable ; the eyes were 
shut; and, when touched by the finger, it gave no 
signs of life or motion. I carried it out to the open 
air, and placed it directly in the rays of the sun, in 
a sheltered situation. In a few seconds, respiration 
became very apparent ; the bird breathed faster and 
faster, opened its eyes, and began to look about, with 
as much seeming vivacity as ever. After it had com- 
pletely recovered, I restored it to liberty ; and it flew 
off to the withered top of a pear tree, where it sat for 
some time dressing its disordered plumage, and then 
shot off like a meteor. 
The flight of the humming bird, from flower to flower, 
greatly resembles that of a bee; but is so much more 
rapid, that the latter appears a mere loiterer to him. 
He poises himself on wing, while he thrusts his long, 
slender, tubular tongue into the flowers in search of 
food. He sometimes enters a room by the window, 
examines the bouquets of flowers, and passes out by 
the opposite door or window. He has been known to 
take refuge in a hot-house during the cool nights of 
autumn ; to go regularly out in the morning, and to 
return as regularly in the evening, for several days 
together. 
The humming bird has, hitherto, been supposed to 
subsist altogether on the honey, or liquid sweets, which 
it extracts from flowers. One or two curious observers 
have, indeed, remarked, that they have found evident 
fragments of insects in the stomach of this species ; but 
these have been generally believed to have been taken 
in by accident. The few opportunities which Euro- 
peans have to determine this point by observations 
made on the living bird, or, by dissection of the newly 
killed one, have rendered this mistaken opinion almost 
general in Europe. For myself I can speak decisively 
on this subject : I have seen the humming bird, for 
half an hour at a time, darting at those little groups of 
