OF NEW ENGLAND. 303 



The Hummingbird's nest is usually placed on the limb of an 

 orchard-tree or oak, though occasionally fastened to the stalk 

 of a large weed."^ Its depth is about half an inch, and its 

 diameter inside is rarely more than twice that. The walls are 

 thick, and are composed of plant-down, bits of fern, the silky 

 husks of certain seeds, and other soft materials. These are so 

 thickly coated with lichens as to closely resemble the branch 

 to which they are attached. Near Boston, two eggs are laid in 

 each nest, in the early part of June. They are white, ellipti- 

 cal, and half an inch long or even less. 



(c). Our little Hummingbirds deserve renown, not onlj^ for 

 their small size, exquisite colors, and eminently pleasing archi- 

 tecture, but also for their hardiness, courage, and admirable 

 flight. They are known in summer to occur so far to the 

 northward (if not further) as the fifty-seventh parallel of lati- 

 tude, which crosses Hudson's Bay and Northern Labrador. 

 They are summer-residents throughout a larger portion of 

 the eastern United States, and as such are common in New 

 England. They reach Massachusetts in the second week of 

 Ma}^, and I have seen them near Boston so late as the twenty- 

 third day of September.^ They generally arrive in pairs, and re- 

 turn to the same home every year. The male protects his honor 

 and rights with undaunted courage, and often teases very large 

 birds in expression of his anger, though he may be "incom- 

 petent" says Wilson "to the exploit of penetrating the tough 

 sinewy side of a crow, and precipitating it from the clouds to 

 the earth, as Charlevoix would persuade his readers to believe." 

 He also finds occasion to battle with intruders of his own kind, 

 but it is impossible to understand the details or result of such 

 a duel, so confusing is the intense quickness of the combatants. 

 In fact, the Hummingbirds are so small, and so extremely swift 



* Wilson says that he has " known instances where it was attached by the side 

 to an old moss-grown trunk; and others where it was fastened on a strong rank 

 Btalk, or weed, in the garden." I have been told that the Hummingbirds were 

 once very abundant on the^sle of Shoals, wliere there were no trees. 



^Coincidentally Mr. Mayuard gives the same day as his latest date of observa- 

 tion. 



