During their sucking the juice out of the flowers they never settle on it, but [[213]]flutter continually like bees, bend their feet backwards, and move their wings so quick, that they are hardly visible. During this fluttering they make a humming like bees, or like that which is occasioned by the turning of a little wheel. After they have thus, without resting, fluttered for a while, they fly to a neighbouring tree or post, and resume their vigour again. They then return to their humming and sucking. They are not very shy, and I in company with several other people, have not been full two yards from the place where they fluttered about and sucked the flowers; and though we spoke and moved, yet they were no ways disturbed; but on going towards them, they would fly off with the swiftness of an arrow. When several of them were on the same bed, there was always a violent combat between them, in meeting each other at the same flower (for envy was likewise predominant amongst these little creatures) and they attacked with such impetuosity, that it would seem as if the strongest would pierce its antagonist through and through, with its long bill. During the fight, they seem to stand in the air, keeping themselves up, by the incredibly swift motion of their wings. When the windows towards the garden are open, they [[214]]pursue each other into the rooms, fight a little, and flutter away again. Sometimes they come to a flower which is withering, and has no more juice in it; they then in a fit of anger pluck it off, and throw it on the ground, that it may not mislead them for the future. If a garden contains a great number of these little birds, they are seen to pluck off the flowers in such quantities, that the ground is quite covered with them, and it seems as if this proceeded from a motion of envy.
Commonly you hear no other sound than their humming, but when they fly against each other in the air, they make a chirping noise like a sparrow or chicken. I have sometimes walked with several other people in small gardens, and these birds have on all sides fluttered about us, without appearing very shy. They are so small that one would easily mistake them for great humming-bees or butterflies, and their flight resembles that of the former, and is incredibly swift. They have never been observed to feed on insects or fruit; the nectar of flowers, seems therefore to be their only food. Several people have caught some humming birds on account of their singular beauty, and have put them into cages, where they died for want of a proper food. [[215]]However Mr. Bartram has kept a couple of them for several weeks together, by feeding them with water in which sugar had been dissolved, and I am of opinion that it would not be difficult to keep them all winter in a hot-house.
The humming bird always builds its nest in the middle of a branch of a tree, and it is so small, that it cannot be seen from the ground, but he who intends to see it must get up to the branch. For this reason it is looked upon as a great rarity if a nest is accidentally found, especially as the trees in summer have so thick a foliage. The nest is likewise the least of all; that which is in my possession is quite round, and consists in the inside of a brownish and quite soft down, which seems to have been collected from the leaves of the great mullein or Verbascum Thapsus, which are often found covered with a soft wool of this colour, and the plant is plentiful here. The outside of the nest has a coating of green moss, such as is common on old pales or enclosures and on trees; the inner diameter of the nest is hardly a geometrical inch at the top, and its depth half an inch. It is however known that the humming birds make their nests likewise of flax, hemp, moss, hair and other such soft [[216]]materials; they are said to lay two eggs, each of the size of a pea.
October the 25th. I employed this day and the next in packing up all the seeds gathered this autumn, for I had an opportunity of sending them to England by the ships which sailed about this time. From England they were forwarded to Sweden.
October the 27th. In the morning I set out on a little journey to New York, in company with Mr. Peter Cock, with a view to see the country, and to enquire into the safest road, which I could take in going to Canada, through the desart or uninhabited country between it and the English provinces.
That part where we travelled at present was pretty well inhabited on both sides of the road, by Englishmen, Germans and other Europeans. Plains and hills of different dimensions were seen alternately, mountains and stones, I never saw, excepting a few pebbles. Near almost every farm was a great orchard with peach and apple trees, some of which were yet loaded with fruit.
The enclosures were in some parts low enough, for the cattle to leap over them with ease; to prevent this the hogs had a triangular wooden yoke: this custom was as I have already observed, common over [[217]]all the English plantations. To the horses neck was fastened a piece of wood, which at the lower end had a tooth or hook, fastening in the enclosure, and stopping the horse, just when it lifted its fore feet to leap over; but I know not whether this be a good invention with regard to horses. They were likewise kept in bounds by a piece of wood, one end of which was fastened to one of the fore feet, and the other to one of the hind feet, and it forced them to walk pretty slowly, as at the same time it made it impossible for them to leap over the enclosures. To me it appeared that the horses were subject to all sorts of dangerous accidents from this piece of wood.
Near New Frankfurt we rode over a little stone bridge, and somewhat further, eight or nine English miles from Philadelphia we passed over another, which was likewise of stone. There are not yet any milestones put up in the country, and the inhabitants only compute the distances by guess. We were afterwards brought over a river in a ferry, where we paid threepence a person, for ourselves and our horses.
At one of the places where we stopt to have our horses fed, the people had a Mocking-bird in a cage; and it is here reckoned the best singing bird, though its [[218]]plumage be very simple, and not showy at all. At this time of the year it does not sing. Linnæus calls it Turdus polyglottos, and Catesby in his Natural History of Carolina, Vol. 1. p. 27. tab. 27, has likewise described and drawn this bird. The people said that it built its nests in the bushes and trees, but is so shy, that if any body come and look at its eggs, it leaves the nest, never to come to it again. Its young ones require great care in being bred up. If they are taken from their mother and put into a cage, she feeds them for three or four days; but seeing no hopes of setting them at liberty, she flies away. It then often happens, that the young ones die soon after, doubtless because they cannot accustom themselves to eat what the people give them. But it is generally imagined, that the last time the mother feeds them, she finds means to poison them, in order, the sooner to deliver them from slavery and wretchedness. These birds stay all summer in the colonies, but retire in autumn to the south, and stay away all winter. They have got the name of Mocking-birds, on account of their skill in imitating the note of almost every bird they hear. The song peculiar to them is excellent, and varied by an infinite change of [[219]]notes and melody; several people are therefore of opinion, that they are the best singing birds in the world. So much is certain, that few birds come up to them; this is what makes them precious: the Swedes call it by the same name as the English.
About noon we came to New Bristol, a small town in Pensylvania, on the banks of the Delaware, about fifteen English miles from Philadelphia. Most of the houses are built of stone, and stand asunder. The inhabitants carry on a small trade, though most of them get their goods from Philadelphia. On the other side of the river, almost directly opposite to New Bristol, lies the town of Burlington, in which the governor of New Jersey resides.