304 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



again. They eat large numbers of the smaller species of insects 

 such as midges, mosquitoes, spiders, aphids and similar species. 

 The honey from the flowers is fully as much a drink as a food 

 for them. They are often so tame and confiding as to take 

 honey and sweetened water from a flower held out in one's 

 hand. 



The nest is a dainty little object placed on top of a tree 

 limb, and from below looking much like a moss covered knot. 

 Various species of forest trees as well as garden shrubbery and 

 orchard trees may be used as nesting sites and nests are 

 situated at all heights from five to forty feet. Maple, beech 

 and pine trees are perhaps most favored among the open 

 deciduous forest growths which they frequent, while in the 

 country orchards they select any handy tree, usually an apple 

 or pear tree, while in the city gardens almost any convenient 

 shrubbery may be seized upon. They have eggs about the 

 first or second week in June with us. 



The nest is a mass of willow down, spider webs, silky plant 

 fibers and similar soft materials. The spider webs hold this 

 together with great firmness. Almost invariably the nests are 

 covered with fragments of moss and lichens externally. A 

 nest in my possession measures 0.90 inch in height, 1.55 across 

 and 0.75 inside. The eggs are pure white and invariably two 

 in number with us, though in other states there are rare records 

 of three eggs in a nest. I have personally examined fully two 

 hundred nests of various species of Hummingbird, mostly those 

 of other species than the present one and mostly Californian 

 species, and never found more than two eggs or young in a 

 nest. Two eggs of the Ruby-throat in my possession measure 

 0.53 X 0.34, 0.51 x 0.36. 



The birds mate on wing, the pairing being preceded by a 

 helter skelter chase. The cry or call is a peculiar rasping 

 insect-like "kitch-u-kitch-u-kitch-u," something like which can 

 be made by turning the stem of a watch backward quickly and 

 irregularly. A favorite performance of the male is to rise in 



