302 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
woodpeckers, but show little affinity to the other picarian 
groups. They are characterized as follows: bill deepest at 
the base (?), with upper outline convex, and the lower con- 
cave; toes arranged in pairs; tail-feathers ten; feathers above 
the tarsus long and flowing. 
The cuckoos are insectivorous, and eat great numbers of 
caterpillars ; but unfortunately they often rob the nests of other 
birds, though not, like the European cuckoos, parasitic. On 
account of their peculiar notes, however, they have been called 
“Cow-birds.” They are migratory but not gregarious. ‘They 
build rude and frail nests, of sticks or the like, in a bush or 
tree, and lay several bluish or greenish eggs, often at irregular 
intervals. 
I. TROCHILUS 
(A) coLusris. Ruby-throated Hummingbird.3 
(A summer-resident throughout New England.) 
(a). About 3} inches long. Golden green above; white 
-beneath. Wings and tail, brownish-purple. , with the 
sides green, and the throat metallic, reflecting ruby-red. Tail 
simply forked. 9, with the tail slightly forked, and ‘“ double- 
rounded,” more or less black-barred, and, on the outer feathers, 
white-tipped. 
(bv). The Hummingbird’s nest may be considered a perfect 
type of bird-architecture, and, as such, is one of the most 
beautiful objects in nature, though composed of simple mate- 
rials, gathered chiefly from weeds, and though constructed by 
but a single instrument. Had not man ideal in art, his works 
could not be favorably compared with such a production as 
this. ‘What enlightened person,” says an anonymous writer, 
whom I have already quoted, ‘‘can gaze upon this nest without 
regretting that man should in the progress of civilization so 
often forget nature, fail to appreciate her, or even wrong her?” 
8A “Tinnée’s Emerald” (Argytira maculata) “was captured by Mr. William 
Brewster, at Cambridge, in August, 1864; it was moulting, and apparently a 
female.” Though this bird may actually have wandered here from its home in 
South America, yet such an incident is not likely to occur again. 
