THE HUMMING BIRDs. 161 
forms and colorings. In some species it is hung in 
the most graceful manner from the tendrils of some 
twining creeper, whose luxuriant bowers of fragrant 
bloom supply them with abundant food and protection 
from the weather. Some are supported by the slen- 
der stalks of a rampant shrub, while others are perched 
beneath the jutting point of some rock o’ergrown 
with ferns and flowers, or built upon the horizontal 
branch of some moss-covered tree. The beautiful 
Delalande Humming Bird constructs a neat little 
nest in the form of an inverted cone, made of moss, 
lichens, fibrous roots, spiders’ webs, and the involu- 
cres of plants, suspended from the slender stems of a 
species of bamboo, and almost entirely imbedded in 
its foliage. The little Ruby-throat of the United 
States, the only species which is familiar to us, gen- 
erally builds upon the strong branch of some old 
tree, and so assimilates the outside of the nest with 
the mossy covering of the bark, as to make it diffi- 
cult to be discovered, except by accident or by dili- 
gent search. The principal materials used in the 
construction of the nests are fine grass, fibrous roots, 
bark, spiders’ webs, feathers, wool, hair, moss, and 
lichens, each selecting such of them as are best 
adapted to its wants, or most easily procured; and in 
most, if not all cases, the interior is lined with the 
soft down or pubescence gathered from various plants. 
The following interesting account, given by a res- 
ident of Jamaica, of the manners of the Polytmus, 
as having come under his own observation, is taken 
14* L 
