THE HUMMING-BIRD. 349 



to the ground before your face, its awkward struggles would show at 

 once that it was quite out of its element. Indeed, let authors affirm 

 what they choose to the contrary, you would see with your own eyes 

 that it could neither hop nor walk ; and that both its abdominal and 

 caudal plumage had come in contact with the mire, for want of longer 

 legs to sustain the bird in a proper attitude. 



In forming its nest, the whole of the materials are collected from 

 plants, trees, and spiders' webs. Some of these nests are beautifully 

 formed of one uniform interwoven material, without any lining, and 

 they put you in mind of brown tanned leather. Others have a deli- 

 cate and an uncommonly soft lining, taken from the wild ipecacuanha. 

 Many are placed upon the upper part of a horizontal branch, and 

 are so studded with the lichen found on the tree, that it is no easy 

 matter to distinguish the nest. Some are attached to the extremity 

 of a pendant leaf, well secured by innumerable threads of the spiders' 

 web, and forming a most curious sample of ornithological architec- 

 ture. Nothing of the nature of glue, nor any other viscous substance, 

 is made use of by the old bird in the fabrication of her nest. Spiders' 

 web supplies the place of these ; and we see, on inspection, that this 

 is made use of by our own chaffinch in finishing the outside of its nest. 



The form of the body in every individual of the humming-bird 

 family is precisely the same, differing only in size. At the knees, in 

 many species (indeed, in all, in a greater or a less degree), is found a 

 profusion of delicately white feathery down. When this is made to 

 appear in preserved specimens, a solecism is committed, in the art 

 of what our learned doctors now call " taxidermy." No part of this 

 feathery down ought to appear, whether the bird be on the wing or 

 resting upon the twig of a tree. In nature, it is entirely concealed 

 by the adjacent and surrounding feathers. The toes, and a very 

 small portion of the foot, will sometimes appear in view ; but rarely 

 do you see the feet when the bird sits on the branch or twig ; and 

 never, by any chance, can you see the leg, no matter whether the 

 bird be in motion or at rest. 



When once the humming-bird has reached the branch, there it 

 remains, quiet and motionless, like our domestic swallow ; never 

 moving to or fro, as other birds are wont to do. It adheres firmly 

 to the spot where it first alighted, until its wants or its whims cause 



