GOOD PACKING. 335 



undisturbed, it will sit for hours. The site chosen 

 for the nest is usually the branch of a young pine ; 

 artfully concealed amidst the fronds at the very 

 end, it is rocked like a cradle by every passing 

 breeze. 



The Black-throated Hummingbird lingers 



O O 



around lakes, pools, and swamps where its 

 favourite trapping-tree grows. I have occasion- 

 ally, though very rarely, seen it hovering over 

 flowers ; this, I apprehend, is only when the 

 storehouse is empty, and the sap too dry to 

 capture the insects. They generally build in 

 the birch or alder, selecting the fork of a branch 

 high up. 



All hummingbirds, as far as I know, lay only 

 two eggs ; the young are so tightly packed into 

 the nest, and fit so exactly, that if once taken 

 out it is impossible to replace them. Several 

 springs succeeding my first discovery that these 

 hummingbirds were regular migrants to boreal 

 regions, I watched their arrival. We were 

 quartered for the winter close to the western 

 slopes of the Rocky Mountains. The winters here 

 vary in length, as well as in depth of snow and 

 intensity of cold, 33 below zero being no un- 

 frequent register. But it did not matter whether 

 we had a late or early spring, the humming- 



