THE HUMMINGBIRD. 



365 



which enables the rower to row, or the sailor to sail his 

 boat? 



The Hummingbird has alighted on a twig of the cherry- 

 tree near by. I can barely see his feet, like bits of fine- 

 drawn wire, supporting the wee bit of a body. He looks 

 nervously about him, pointing his long bill in every direc- 

 tion, and sidles gracefully along his slender perch. Presently 

 another male appears, with an equally ruby throat, and dash- 

 ing at each other, they describe a swift zigzag, whirling about 

 most perilously, squeaking like mice, and finally disappearing 

 w^ith a rapidity which the eye can follow but for a moment. 



About 3.25 long, this species is golden-green above, with 

 a fine gloss, and white beneath, the wings and tail being a 

 purplish-brown. The male has the metallic-lustrous ruby 

 on the throat, which is wanting in the female and the young. 

 The female has the sides of the tail white. 



The nest of this species, about the size of half a hen's 

 ^^^, and saddled on a small limb, is made of a soft, vegetable, 

 cottony substance, sometimes white, sometimes reddish or 

 grayish, externally intermixed, perhaps, with the scales 

 of beech-buds — a sort of staple article in the nest of many 

 kinds of birds — seemingly to give it consistency, the whole 

 structure being most elegantly covered outside with brightly 

 colored lichens ; thus appearing so much like a natural 

 growth or excrescence of the wood itself as generally to 

 elude observation. It may be placed pretty well up in the 

 tree in the depth of the forest, or lower down in the orchard, 

 or on a currant-bush or rose-bush in the garden, or on a 

 coarse weed-stalk in the vicinity. The two tiny oval-oblong 

 eggs, pure white and translucent, lying on their bed of silken 

 down, edged and surrounded with the gayest lichens, never 

 fail to move the heart of the beholder as one of the rarest 

 bits of natural beauty. 



