84 PERIOD OF INCUBATION. 



The young, on emerging from the shell, are 

 naked and blind ; but they thrive rapidly, the 

 feathers soon begin to grow, and in about three 

 weeks they are able to leave the nest. The 

 period of incubation most probably varies in the 

 different species ; Mr. Gosse found two eggs in 

 the nest of the Long-tailed Humming-bird, on 

 the 8th of April, which were not hatched on the 

 1st of May, when the nest was taken. Captain 

 Lyon notices that the species whose nidificatioii 

 he watched laid an egg on the 26th, and the 

 second on the 28th of January, and these were 

 hatched on the 14th of February. Audubon says 

 that the eggs of the Ruby-throat are hatched in 

 ten days. 



The young are fed as are those of the pigeon 

 or canary, and receive nectar and insects from 

 the crop of the parents, their beaks being in- 

 serted into the beaks of the nestlings. 



We have already alluded to the pugnacity of 

 the Humming-birds; but during the breeding 

 season this pugnacity is displayed to an extreme; 

 they attack every bird which approaches their 

 nest, darting at it with the greatest fury ; but 

 this fierceness is only confined to feathered ag- 

 gressors, for as far as man at least is concerned, 

 though they may exhibit signs of agitation or 

 distress on his near approach, they make no 

 attack. It is true that Fernando Oviedo asserts 

 that they fly at the face, and strike the eyes of 

 a person who ventures to look into their nest, 



