88 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 



the case in the wildest districts, where they are not 

 disturbed by children. Nevertheless, I was never 

 able to surprise them in the nest, not even during the 

 night, because it is invariably placed in the midst of 

 brambles, and cannot be approached without disturb- 

 ing them ; it is never built in an isolated bush, but 

 always in the midst of a clump of bushes difficult of 

 access. 



" It is also remarkable, that the first nest of a very 

 young pair is never so large nor so well constructed 

 as those which they afterward make ; an observa- 

 tion which, I think, holds very generally in respect of 

 birds. 



" A nest so commodious and soft as that of the 

 pine-pine is envied by many birds which are unhap- 

 pily superior to it in strength, and which, after having 

 broken its eggs and compelled it to flight, despoil 

 its habitation. Thus it frequently happens, that 

 when a pair of pine-pines have finished the work- 

 manship of their little nest, and even sometimes 

 after having made several of these, they have not 

 had the pleasure of possessing an asylum for their 

 young. A sad example of what is seen in the affairs 

 of men, among whom the most powerful have exer- 

 cised absolute dominion and obliged the weaker to 

 obey."* 



We may with great propriety place here the 

 smallest and prettiest nests with which we are ac- 

 quainted, those of the humming-birds (Troetilidte, 

 VIGORS), with whose appearance many of our readers 

 may be familiar, as they are by no means uncom- 

 mon in museums, their extreme neatness of execu- 

 tion and their minute size causing them to be highly 

 prized. By far the best description of these which 

 we have met with, is that by Wilson of the red- 

 throated humming-bird ( Trochilus colubris). " About 

 the 25th of April," he says, " the humming-bird 

 usually arrives in Pennsylvania, and about the 10th 

 * Oiseaux d'Afrique, vol. iii., p. 91. 



