50 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 
structive brood in crevices between the bark and 
wood, he labours sometimes for half an hour inces- 
santly at the same spot before he has succeeded in 
dislodging and destroyingthem. At these times you 
may walk up pretty close to the tree, and even stand 
immediately below it, within five or six feet of the 
bird, without in the least embarrassing him; the 
atrokes of his bill are distinctly heard several hun- 
dred yards off; and I have known him to be at work 
for two hours together on the same tree. Buffon 
calls this ‘incessant toil and slavery ;’ their attitude 
‘a painful posture ;’ and their life ‘a dull and insipid 
existence ;) expressions improper because untrue, 
and absurd because contradictory. The posture is 
that for which the whole organization of his frame 
is particularly adapted; and though to a wren ora 
humming-bird the labour would be both a toil and a 
slavery, yet to him it is, I am convinced, as pleasant 
and as amusing as the sports of the chase to the hunts 
er, or the sucking of flowers to the humming-bird. 
The eagerness with which he traverses the upper 
and lower sides of the branches; the cheerfulness 
of his cry; and the liveliness of his motions, while 
digging into the tree and dislodging the vermin, jus= 
tify this belief.” 
Our author’s account of the nestling of this active 
little bird is equally lively. “ About the middle of 
May,” says he, “the male and female look out for a 
suitable place for the reception of their eggs and 
young. An apple; pear, or cherry tree, often in the 
near neighbourhood of the farmhouse, is generally 
pitched upon for this purpose. The tree is minutely 
reconnoitred for several days previous to the operas 
tion, and the work is first begun by the male, who 
cuts out a hole in the solid wood, as circular as if 
described with a pair of compasses. He is occas 
sionally relieved by the female, both parties work- 
ing with the most indefatigable diligence. ‘The di- 
rection of the hole, if made im the body of the tree, 
