282 MODE OF CAPTURE. than a humble-bee, and blazing with all the refulgence of the brightest jewels-it is scarcely possible to imagine how they can be obtained without serious damage to their beauty. Some writers have stated that they are shot with charges of sand; others, that water is the missile-but they are mistaken; various methods are certainly employed, but neither of those. The little creatures are sometimes shot with small charges of "dust-shot," as the smallest pellets are called; frequently the keen eye and steady hand of the Indians bring them down by an arrow from their blow-tube; a third mode is to watch them into a deep tubular flower, and to secure them with a gauze net which is skilfully thrown over it. Very many humming-birds were caught by Mr. Gosse, with a common gauze butterfly-net, on a ring a foot in diameter. The curiosity of humming-birds is great; and on holding up the net near one, he frequently would not fly away, but come and hover over the mouth, stretching out his little neck to peep in. Often, too, when an unsuccessful stroke was made, the bird would return immediately, and suspend itself in the air, just over his pursuer's head, or peep into his face with unconquerable familiarity. But, when caught, they usually soon died; they would suddenly fall to the floor of the cage, and lie motionless, with closed eyes. If taken into the hand, they would perhaps seem to revive for a few moments, then throw back the pretty head, or toss it to and fro as if in great suffering, expand the wings, open the eyes, slightly puff the feathers of the breast, and die. Such was the result of his first efforts to procure these birds alive; but he was subsequently more fortunate. Collecting the nests of humming-birds in the West Indies, requires some care, on account of the great number of venomous serpents which frequent the thickets. While Alexander Wilson, the subsequently celebrated ornithologist, was struggling against poverty in his early days as a weaver, he was much importuned by a shopmate to write him an epitaph. This individual had excelled in little, except, to use the expressive Scottish word, daundering about the hedgerows on Sundays, in search of birds' nests. After much pressing, Wilson complied, and hit off the following: "Below this stane John Allan rests, An honest soul, though plain; Had Mr. Allan pursued his nidal investigations in Jamaica, his curiosity might have met with an unpleasant check. A young gentleman of similar tastes, observing a parroquet enter a hole in a large duck 234 THE PHILOSOPHER AND THE MIDDIES. ant's nest situated on a bastard cedar, mounted to take her eggs or young. Arrived at the place, he cautiously inserted his hand, which presently came into contact with something smooth and soft; he thought it might be the callow young, but having some misgivings, descended and procured a stick; having again mounted, he thrust in the stick, and forced off the whole upper part of the structure, when to his utter discomfiture and terror, an enormous yellow boa was disclosed, his jaws retaining the feathers of the parroquet, which had just been swallowed. The serpent instantly darted down the tree, and the curious youth descended scarcely less rapidly, and fled, cured for a time of bird-nesting. A story is told of a trick played upon an enthusiastic foreign naturalist, on his landing at Rio Janeiro, by certain middies of the ship which had carried him out. The worthy savant was very stout, very nearsighted, and very eager to collect humming-birds. The young gentlemen therefore determined to make merry at his expense in the following manner: Having caught several large blue-bottle flies, they stuck them over with small bits of gay peacock feathers, with two long plumules behind, by way of tail; the wings were left free. Then carefully placing the chairs, boxes, and crockery of the doctor's apartment in every possible direction, they turned their |