52 EVERYDAY BIRDS 
Many persons seem to imagine that the hum- 
mer lives on the wing. They have never seen 
one sitting still, they say. But the truth is that 
hummingbirds pass but a small part of the time 
in the air. They are so very small, however, 
that they are easily overlooked on a branch of a 
tree, and the average person never notices them 
except when the hum of their wings attracts his 
attention. 
One of the prettiest sights in the world is a 
hummingbird hovering before a blossom, his 
wings vibrating so fast as to make a mist about 
him, and his long needle of a bill probing the 
flower with quick, eager thrusts. All his move- 
ments are of lightning-like rapidity, and even 
while your eyes are on him he is gone like a 
flash, you cannot say whither. 
The hummingbird’s nest is built on a branch 
of a tree, — saddled on it, —and is not very 
hard to find after you have once seen one, and 
so have learned precisely what to look for. 
Generally it is placed well out toward the end of 
the limb. I have found it on pitch-pines in the 
woods, on roadside maples, — shade trees, — and 
especially in apple and pear orchards. The mo- 
ther bird is very apt to betray its whereabouts 
by buzzing about the head of any one who 
comes near it. 
