78 FASSERES. 



upon the habits of the Ruby-crested Humming-Bird, from the 

 pen of Mr. Kirk, will illustrate their mode of building : " They 

 begin to make their nests about the beginning of February. The 

 manner of their construction is very ingenious : bringing a pile of 

 small grass or lichen, the female commenced to build upon a small 

 twig about a quarter of an inch in diameter, immediately below a 

 large leaf, which entirely covers and conceals the nest from above, 

 the height from the ground being about three feet. After the nest 

 had received two or three of these grasses, she set herself in the 

 centre, and putting her long slender beak over the outer edge, 

 seemed to use it and her throat much in the same way as a mason 

 employs his trowel for the purpose of smoothing, rubbing to and 

 fro, and sweeping quite round. Each visit to the nest seemed to 

 occupy only a couple of seconds, and her absence from it not more 

 than as many minutes. In a few hours the nest had all the appear- 

 ance of a finished one. I expect to find an egg in it to-day." 



These beautiful birds are divisible into three sub-families, named 

 respectively the Wedge-tailed, the Curve-billed, and the Straight- 

 billed Hummin":-Birds. 



Sub-Family I. 

 THE WEDGE-TAILED HUMMING-BIRDS. GRYPIN.^. 



General Characteristics. — Bill more or less long, slender, and generally curved 

 throughout its whole length, with the culmen keeled at the base, and then rounded 

 to the tip, which is acute, the lateral margins dilated and overlapping the lower 

 mandible ; the nostrils basal and covered by a scale ; the wings long and pointed ; 

 the tail long, broad, and generally cuneated ; the tarsi short and slender ; the toes 

 long, slender, and sometimes united at their bases, the hind toe more or less long 

 and slender ; the anterior claws long and slender, and that of the hind toe sometimes 

 very small. 



These Humming-Birds are remarkable among their glittering 

 race for being destitute of metallic brilliancy, and, as their com- 

 mon name of "hermit" implies, for affecting dark and gloomy 

 situations. They constitute perhaps the only group of the fiimily 

 which frequent the interior of the forests, and there obtain their 

 insect food, some from the under side of the leaves of the great 

 trees, while others assiduously explore their stems in search of 

 such lurking insects as may be concealed in the bark. It is said 

 that spiders constitute the principal food of many species of this 

 group, and the structure of their bills seems admirably adapted 

 for the capture of prey of this description. To individualize by 



