NIDIFICATIOK. 75 



" The down of the cotton-tree is the material 

 ordinarily chosen by all our Humming-birds for 

 the construction of their nests. The tree attains 

 a giant size and diameter, and throws out to a 

 vast distance its horizontal limbs, each equalling 

 in its dimensions an ordinary forest-tree. It is 

 one of the few in those tropical islands which 

 are deciduous. The fierce blasts called norths, 

 which prevail in January and Pebruary, pouring 

 down from the mountains quickly lay it bare. I 

 have seen an enormous tree in full foliage almost 

 leafless in an hour, the leaves filling the air like 

 flakes of snow in a driving storm. "While it is 

 yet denuded, the pods appear at the ends of the 

 branches, resembling green walnuts ; these ripen 

 before the leaves bud, and opening give freedom 

 to a mass of fine silky filamentous down, which 

 is borne away upon the wind. These filaments 

 are so fine that, at this season, April and May, 

 they are imbibed with the air we breathe, being 

 almost impalpable, and are considered to aggra- 

 vate pulmonary affections. The tufts so scat- 

 tered, the Humming-birds, and others of the 

 feathered tribes diligently collect, and that not 

 only on the ground. I have been amused to ob- 

 serve a Mango Humming-bird suspending him- 

 self in the air, over against a pui? of down, which 

 was slowly borne along upon a gentle breeze, 

 pecking at it, and drawing filaments from it, 

 doubtless with a view to nest building." 



The same observant naturalist, speaking of the 



