76 PASSERES. 



provokingly. Like lightning the Httle heroes come down, and 

 again and again renew the attack, until their anger has expended 

 itself by its own fury, or until the bee, roused from its apathy, 

 puts forth powers that drive the invader from the field. 



The domestic architecture of the humming-birds is amongst the 

 most interesting of the many singular features in their history. 

 In form and size the nests vary much in different species, and a 

 similar difference exists in the situations where they are placed. 

 Some of these fairy cradles are not larger than the half of a wal- 

 nut-shell, and such coracle-shaped structures are amongst the 

 neatest and most beautiful. The members of the genus Trochi- 

 lus and their allies exhibit the greatest ingenuity, not so much in 

 the construction of their nests as in the lavish decoration of their 



Fig. 38.— Nest of Humming-Bird. 



outer walls. With the utmost skill they fasten to the exterior 

 morsels of flat lichen, the larger pieces in the middle, and the 

 smaller on the part attached to the branch. Now and then a 

 pretty feather is intertwined or fastened to the outer side, the stem 

 being always so disposed that the feather stands out beyond the 

 surface. These little cup-shaped nests are frequently placed on 

 the bifurcation of some horizontal branch near the ground, or, at 

 other times, higher up towards the summit of the bush in which 

 they are built. 



" The humming-birds in Jamaica," says Lady Emmeline Stuart 

 Wortley, " are lovely little creatures, and wonderfully tame and 

 fearless of the approach of man. One of these charming feathered 

 jewels had built its delicate nest close to one of the walls of the 

 garden belonging to the house where we were staying. The branch, 

 indeed, of the beautiful little shrub in which the fairy nest was sus- 



