74: NIDIFICATION. 



mother built her nest higher, so that from having 

 at first the form of figure 1, it ultimately became 

 like figure 2. The old bird sat very close during 

 the continuance of the heavy rain for several days 

 and nights. The young remained blind until 

 February 28th, and flew on the morning of 

 March 7th without previous practice, as strong 

 and swiftly as the mother, taking their first 

 start from the nest to a tree about twenty 

 yards distant." Zool. Journal, vol. v. 



Mr. Grosse, in his interesting work on the 

 Birds of Jamaica, thus describes the nest of the 

 MANGO HUMMING-BIRD (Naturalist's Library, 

 vol. ii. p. 100), which had been presented to him. 

 " It has evidently been constructed to stand upon 

 a horizontal twig which the bottom has embraced. 

 It is cylindrical externally, the bottom being 

 nearly flat. Its height is 1| inch ; its external 

 diameter a little more ; its internal diameter, 

 1 inch ; the hollow, which is a little overhung 

 by the margin, is cup-shaped about f ths of an 

 inch deep. It is composed almost entirely of 

 the down of the gigantic silk-cotton tree (Erio- 

 dendron anfractuosum), intermixed at the bottom 

 with a little true cotton. The sides are tightly 

 banded round with the threads of spiders' webs 

 very neatly put on, and the whole exterior is 

 studded with a minute whitish lichen so pro- 

 fusely as almost to conceal the down, without at 

 all injuring the symmetry of the form. It is a 

 most compact and beautiful little structure. 



