770 H U M M I N G - B I R D .
Place* and
Manners,
This elegant fpecies is common in Carolina, and, like the Ruff-
Necked, vifits the more northern parts of America'-, we hear o f it in
Canada *, and even as far as the Bay of Gafpe f ; and I have
authority for faying, that it breeds both at Halifax and Quebec.
Kalm J informs us, that they come into Penfylvania in fpring,
when pretty warm, and make their nefts in fummer ; towards
autumn departing to the fouth.
Thefe birds fubfift on the neftär or fweet juice of flowers -,
they frequent thofe molt which have a long tube; particularly the
Impatiens noli me tangere, the Monarda with crimfon flowers,
and thofe of the Convolvulus tribe: they never fettle on the flower
during the aftion of extracting the juice, but flutter continually,,
like Bees, moving their wings very quick, and making a humming
noife; whence their name § ; they are not very Ihy, fuffering
people to come within a foot or two of the place where they are,
but on approaching nearer fly off, like an arrow out of a bow t
they often meet and .fight for the right to a flower, and this all
on the wing j : in this ftate often come into rooms where the
windows ftand open, fight a little, and go out again **. When
they come to a flower which is juicelefs, or on the point of
* Charlev. Hiß. de la Nouv. France, iii. p. |yfßl
f Nöuv. relat. de la Gafpeße, par Le R. F . Cbr. Lecltrcq. p. 486.
J travels in North America, vol. i. p. 216,
§ Whoever has feen in England the method by which the Sphinx-moths take
in their nourilhment, will have a juft idea of that of the Humming-bird, efpe-
cially that fpecies called the Humming-bird-ntotb,
1) Often flying to a vaft height quite perpendicular, fhrieking out at the
fame time with all their might.
** They-are often caught in this maftner, as they ditedlly make (0 the cieling,.
in the manner of Moths,
withering,
H U M M I N G - B I R D .
a
withering, they pluck it off, as it were in anger, by which means
the ground is often quite covered with them. When they fly
againft each other, they have, befides the humming, a fort of chirping
noife, like a Sparrow or Chicken. They do not feed on infects
nor fru it; nor can they be kept long in cages, though they have
been preferved alive for feveral weeks together, by feeding them
with water in which fugar had been diffolved.
This bird moll frequently builds on the middle of a branch* N est an# B oas.
■ of a tree, and the neft is fo fijiall, that it cannot be feen by a
perfon who Hands on the ground j any one, therefore, defirous of
feeing it mull get up to the branch, that he may view it from
above; it is for this reafon that the nefts are not more frequently
found. The neft is in courfe very fmall, and quite round; the
outfide, for the moll part, js compofed of green mofs, common
on old pales and trees; the infide of foft down, moftly collected
from the leaves of the great Mullein^, or the Silk-grafs% ;but fome-
times they vary the texture, making ufe of Flax, Henip, Hairs,
and other foft materials : they lay two eggs of the fize of a pea,
which are white, and not bigger at one end than the other.
The above account of the manners will, in general, fuit all the
birds of this genus; for, as their tongues are made for fudtion, it
is by this method alone that they can gain nouriflunent: no
wonder, therefore, they can fcarcely be kept alive by human
artifice §.
* Not always, a? it is often known to take up with fome lo%v bujh, or a To-
b&cco-Jlalk j I have one of thefe fixed to the fide of a pod of Qcra *,
f Vtrbafeum. Lin. X Periploca. Lin,
$ My friend Captain Davies informs me, that he kept thefe bi,rds alive for
feur
;ixI
‘ jr I
■ If
J H j
ifm
*
Hibifcui efculentus. Lin,
5 F a