THE HUMMING BIRDS. 161 



forms and colorings. In some species it is hung in 

 the most graceful manner from the tendrils of some 

 twining creeper, whose luxuriant bowers of fragrant 

 bloom supply them with abundant food and protection 

 from the weather. Some are supported by the slen- 

 der stalks of a rampant shrub, while others are perched 

 beneath the jutting point of some rock o'ergrown 

 with ferns and flowers, or built upon the horizontal 

 branch of some moss-covered tree. The beautiful 

 Delalande Humming Bird constructs a neat little 

 nest in the form of an inverted cone, made of moss, 

 lichens, fibrous roots, spiders' webs, and the involu- 

 cres of plants, suspended from the slender stems of a 

 species of bamboo, and almost entirely imbedded in 

 its foliage. The little Ruby-throat of the United 

 States, the only species which is familiar to us, gen- 

 erally builds upon the strong branch of some old 

 tree, and so assimilates the outside of the nest with 

 the mossy covering of the bark, as to make it diffi- 

 cult to be discovered, except by accident or by dili- 

 gent search. The principal materials used in the 

 construction of the nests are fine grass, fibrous roots, 

 bark, spiders' webs, feathers, wool, hair, moss, and 

 lichens, each selecting such of them as are best 

 adapted to its wants, or most easily procured ; and in 

 most, if not all cases, the interior is lined with the 

 soft down or pubescence gathered from various plants. 

 The following interesting account, given by a res- 

 ident of Jamaica, of the manners of the Polytmus, 

 as having come under his own observation, is taken 

 14* L 



