108 TEXUIROSTRES. 



and^ lastly^ the downy substance from the great 

 Mullein and from the stalks of the common Fern 

 lines the whole. The base of the nest entwines the 

 stem of the branchy to which it closely adheres. The 

 eggs are two in number, and the female rears two 

 broods in the course of the same season. 



Tlie Little Humming-hird {Mellisuga minima) may be 

 regarded as the smallest species of the family. It is an 

 inhabitant of St. Domingo and Jamaica. Of this little 

 feathered fairy, Mr. Gosse observes : — " It is the only 

 Humming-bird, with which I am acquainted, that has a 

 real song : the others have only a pertinacious chirping. 

 I have sometimes," he says, " watched with great 

 delight the evolutions of this little species at a Maringa 

 tree. When only one is present, he pursues the round 

 of the blossoms soberly enough, sacking as he goes, and 

 every now and then sitting quietly on a twig. But if 

 two are about the tree, one will fly off, and suspending 

 himself in the air a few yards distant, the other presently 

 shoots off to him, and then, without touching each other, 

 they mount upwards, Avith a strong rushing of wings, 

 perhaps for five hundred feet. They then sei)arate, and 

 each shoots diagonally towards the ground, like a ball 

 from a rifle, and, wheeling round, comes up to the 

 blossoms again, and sucks and sucks as if it had not 

 moved away at all. Frequently one alone will mount 

 in this manner, or dart on invisible wing diagonally 

 upwards, looking exactly like a ' humble bee.' The 

 nest is a minute cup-shaped structure, jjlaced upon or 

 between the twigs of trees. It is composed of silk-cotton 

 (the down of the Bombyx), and ornamented externally 

 with fragments of lichen." 



