Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/211

Although the writer has been fortunate enough to find several little bunches of the cotton-like substance which forms the nest of the humming-bird, he has captured but one young bird; that one was discovered disconsolately peeping as it sat upon a smooth stone in the middle of a Kentucky stream. Upon the overhanging branch of a button-wood tree there was a little lump which was at once recognized as a humming-bird's nest, but so closely did it approach the branch in texture and color, that it might have been passed by unobserved had it not been for the otherwise unaccountable appearance of the little feathered midget upon the stone directly under it. The young bird, when picked up, did not offer to fly, but opened its long, slender bill and made a peeping noise, eagerly swallowing some little insects that were put into its mouth. It was not long before the parent birds commenced buzzing around the author's head like enraged bumble-bees; they even flew against his face, nor did they leave him until he had set their offspring free.

A writer in Chambers's Journal upon this subject says:

"It was long thought that humming-birds would not live in confinement; and this idea is so far correct that, although easily tamed, they will not live long in captivity if fed only on syrup. If confined to this food they die in a month or two, apparently starved; whereas, if kept in a small room, the windows of which are covered with fine net, so as to allow insects to enter, they may be preserved for a considerable time in health and beauty. Their nests are very curious; many of them are cup-shaped and very small, sometimes no larger than the half of a walnut shell; and they are often beautifully decorated on the outside with lichens, so as exactly to resemble the branch in the fork of which they are placed. They are formed of cottony substances, and are lined inside with fibres as fine and soft as silk. The nests of other species are hammock-shaped, and are suspended to creepers; the Pichincha hum-