102 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



variegated Apollo, reign in the torrid 

 months, when their bird enemies have 

 mostly gone northward, and they share 

 the garden with the humming-bird. 



The humming-bird hides his nest, or 

 rather conceals it, by a trick of con- 

 struction, which blends the nest with 

 the branch, binding the soft bed of 

 fern-wool and lichens to it so closely 

 that the eye passes it over, and I sel- 

 dom have found more than one nest in 

 a season, though the flocks of parents 

 and young gave indications of at least 

 a dozen. In a nest that I saw this 

 year, saddled aslant on a drooping 

 beech bough, were two little hummers, 

 a day or so from the egg, who bore 

 hardly a bird-like feature, looking like 

 tiny black beans pricked over with 

 stiff dark bristles, but in two weeks 

 they were wearing their iridescent 

 coats of mail. 



