154 BIRDS'-NESTS. 



the tree, and alighting quickly in the nest 

 arrange the material she had brought, using 

 her breast as a model. 



The other nest I discovered in a dense 

 forest on the side of a mountain. The sit- 

 ting bird was disturbed as I passed beneath 

 her. The whirring of her wings arrested 

 my attention, when, after a short pause, I 

 had the good luck to see, through an opening 

 in the leaves, the bird return to her nest, 

 which appeared like a mere wart or excres- 

 cence on a small branch. The humming- 

 bird, unlike all others, does not alight upon 

 the nest, but flies into it. She enters it as 

 quick as a flash, but as light as any feather. 

 Two eggs are the complement. They are 

 perfectly white, and so frail that only a wo- 

 man's fingers may touch them. Incubation 

 lasts about ten days. In a week the young 

 have flown. 



The only nest like the humming-bird's, 

 and comparable to it in neatness and sym- 

 metry, is that of the blue-gray gnat-catcher. 

 This is often saddled upon the limb in the 

 same manner, though it is generally more or 

 less pendent ; it is deep and soft, composed 

 mostly of some vegetable down, covered all 

 over with delicate tree-lichens, and, except 



