350 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



The temperate regions of the Andes, from 7,000 to 10,000 feet of 

 altitude, produce the greatest number of these birds, which for the 

 most part are distributed throughout that mountain range in locally 

 defined limits, which are probably marked out for the various species 

 by the peculiar features of soil and aspect which control the production 

 of vegetation, and consequently, of the insects which derive their 

 existence from that source, and form, in their turn, the main suste- 

 nance of humming-birds. 



SINGULAR LOCALITY FOR A BIRD'S NEST. 



THE following paper was read at the Belfast meeting of the British 

 Association, by Dr. Barry. 



At the railway station in Giessen, Hesse Darmstadt, in May, 1852, it 

 was found that a bird had built its nest on the collision spring of a 

 third-class carriage which had remained for some time out of use. 

 The bird was the black red-start, (Sylvia Tithys,) and the nest 

 contained five eggs. The discovery was made by the " wagenmeis- 

 ter," who humanely desired his men to avoid as long as possible, the 

 running of that carriage. At length, when it could no longer be dis- 

 pensed with, the carriage was attached to a train, and sent to Frank- 

 fort-on-the-Maine, distant between thirty and forty English miles. At 

 Frankfort it remained for six-and-thirty hours, and was then brought 

 back to Giessen ; from whence it went to Lollar, distant four or five 

 English miles, and subsequently again came back to Giessen, having 

 been kept a while at Lollar; so that four days and three nights 

 elapsed between the bringing of the carriage into its use, and its last 

 return to Giessen. Stephanij now finding the nest not to have been 

 abandoned by the parent birds, and to contain young ones, which he 

 describes as feathered, he removed it from the carriage to a secure 

 place of rest which he had prepared, saw the parent birds visit it, 

 and visited it from time to time himself, until at first three and then 

 the other two young birds had flown ; none remaining at the end of 

 four or five days. Now, while the carriage was travelling, where 

 were the parent birds '? It will hardly be said that they remained at 

 Giessen awaiting its return, having to examine by night as well as by 

 day hundreds of passing carriages in order to recognize it ; the young 

 birds in their nests quietly awaiting food. (!) There seems little 

 doubt that, adhering to the nest, one, at least, of the parent birds 

 travelled with ilie train. Nor, when it is remembered how gently, and 

 how slowly an enormous railway carriage is pushed into connection 

 with a train, how gradually a train is brought into full speed, and 

 how equable the movements are upon a railway, will it appear 

 incredible that at such a time a parent bird should continue with its 

 nest, that nest being quite concealed, and containing young. Not 

 until after the above Avas written, did the author of this communica- 

 tion become acquainted with the important fact that while the car- 

 riage in question was at Frankfort, as well as during its short stay at 

 Friedeberg, on the way to Frankfort, the conductor of the train saw 



