VI TROCHILIDAE rales 
The males are extraordinarily pugnacious, and one will 
furiously set upon another who interferes in the least with his 
comfort, the pair circling around with reiterated, high-pitched 
notes, attacking and withdrawing in turn, almost heedless of a 
fall or collision ; finally, beak grasps beak, and the struggle grows 
more intense, until the defeated combatant retreats to some friendly 
tree, only to renew the fight with vigour unimpaired should his 
defiant note exasperate his rival beyond control. Or again, should 
a prowling hawk, an inoffensive heron or thrush, or even a human 
being, pass perilously near a nest, the cock will make a determined 
onslaught, often with complete success; the hen following his 
example, if she feels called upon to protect her charge. These 
tiny creatures seem absolutely fearless, and frequently feed at 
once from the hand when caught. 
The twittering voice is variously described as a chirp, a 
squeak, a querulous warble, a whistle, a loud clear piping cry, or 
a shrill screech, while the absence of proper song-muscles makes 
it difficult to credit Gosse’s statement that J/ellisuga minima 
utters a weak, sweet warble, lasting for ten minutes.’ 
The nest is usually a moderately deep, round or oval cup-lke 
structure, which may be no larger than a walnut-shell; this is 
formed of the cottony down of plants, moss, wool, or like materials, 
felted into an extremely light and spongy mass, and often decorated 
externally with lchens, cobwebs, shreds of bark, or even feathers 
and dry leaves. It is placed in a small fork, saddled upon a 
bough, hung from creepers, laced among branchlets, or excep- 
tionally fastened to thatch. In Rhamphodon, Phaéthornis, 
Cephalolepis, Heliothriz, and possibly elsewhere, a fabric of very 
delicate twigs, fibres, and bark is attached to the lower part of a 
palm or similar leaf, several rings of supporting fibre encircling 
the portion near the stalk, and spiders’ webs or silky threads 
aiding to sustain the sides of the structure, which in depth and 
make recalls that of the Reed-Warbler. Oreotrochilus forms a 
peculiar “hammock ” of moss, grass, and so forth, attached by 
like contrivances to rocks; or at times suspends a mass of wool, 
hair, moss, and feathers, as large as a child’s head, with a small 
depression above for the eggs, from pendent roots, tendrils, or 
creepers. This is said to be weighted on either side, if necessary, 
with small stones or morsels of earth, and is repaired for use in 
1 Birds of Jamaica, 1847, p. 130. 
