. 
422 LAND BIRDS 
some glints of the metallic lustre of the adults. They 
began to sit up, preen their feathers, and stretch their 
ludicrously small wings. On the seventeenth day one 
perched on the edge of the nest an hour, and that night 
the mother did not attempt to brood them, but clung 
meekly to the edge as close as they would allow her to 
come. Evidently they “resented being sat upon,” like 
the ruby-throat described by Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller. 
They were fed entirely by regurgitation. 
During this time the father bird had not once come 
near the nest, but on the seventeenth day an adult male 
hovered in the close vicinity and was repeatedly driven 
off by the mother. Within a week after that both 
youngsters had flown, but for many days thereafter 
were often found perching on small twigs in the sun- 
shine, motionless, an hour at a time. 
The nest was found to be much flattened from con- 
stant perching upon the edges, but was as clean as when 
newly built. The materials used were plant down orna- 
mented on the outside with tiny bits of gray lichen and 
small dry leaves, bound with silk from cocoons. Inside 
it was lined with a few tiny feathers. It measured one 
and five-eighths inches across the top and three-quarters 
of an inch deep on the outside, but less than three- 
eighths on the inside. This was after the brood had 
flown and, as mentioned before, it was much flattened. 
As we had not seen it built, we were unable to judge 
whether or not the male assists in the construction, but 
he certainly does not share in the incubation or care of 
the young. 
