CHAPTER XXIV 



The Humming-bird: Trochilus Colubris 



AROUND THE CABIN 



WHEN Mr. McCollum sent me 

 word that one of his sons had lo- 

 cated the nest of a Humming-bird, 

 I travelled the same road I had 

 gone over earlier in the season to 

 the haunt of the Rail. The fact 

 that all nature had advanced a few 

 weeks nearer fruition made the trip 

 none the less delightful. We found 

 the location in deep forest in a 

 small ironwood tree; the nest so 

 little that only by a miracle had 

 anyone ever seen it at all. 



The tiny cradle was built of 

 lichens lined with chestnut-coloured 

 down fine as silk, saddled on a limb 

 twice the thickness of a lead-pencil, 

 and bound fast with cobwebs. A 

 silver dollar laid on top would have 

 sheltered it perfectly during a rainstorm. There were no eggs, 

 and as it had been discovered ten days before and the tree bent 

 to examine it while the birds had been building, I concluded 

 they had abandoned it. I am sure it was completed outside, 

 but I do not know that it was finished within. Because it was 



321 



"It soon revived until it could 



cling to a dead twig 



on the bush" 



