314 LAND-BIRDS. 



I. TROCHILUS. 



A. COLUBRIS. Ruby-throated Hummingbird. 111 A sum- 

 mer resident throughout New England.* 



a. About 3 \ inches long. Golden green above ; white be- 

 neath. Wings and tail, brownish purple. $ , with the sides 

 green, and the throat metallic, reflecting ruby red. Tail, 

 simply forked. <j> , with the tail slightly forked, and " double- 

 rounded," more or less black-barred, and, on the outer feathers, 

 white-tipped. 



b. The Hummingbird's nest may be considered a perfect 

 type of bird-architecture, and, as such, though composed of 

 simple materials, gathered chiefly from weeds, and though con- 

 structed by but a single instrument, is one of the most beauti- 

 ful objects in nature. Had not man ideal in art, his works 

 could not be favorably compared with such a production as 

 this. " What enlightened person," says an anonymous writer, 

 whom I have already quoted, " can gaze upon this nest without 

 regretting that man should in the progress of civilization so 

 often forget nature, fail to appreciate her, or even wrong her ?" 

 The Hummingbird's nest is usually placed on the limb of an 

 orchard-tree or oak, though occasionally fastened to the stalk 

 of a large weed. 112 Its depth is about half an inch, and its 

 diameter inside is rarely more than twice that. The walls are 

 thick, and are composed of plant-down, bits of fern, the silky 

 husks of certain seeds, and other soft materials. These are so 



111 A " Limit's Emerald " (Agyrtria have rendered such an imposition com- 

 tobaci) " was captured by Mr. Wil- paratively safe and easy. W. B. 

 Ham Brewster, at Cambridge, in Au- * A summer resident of the whole of 

 gust, 1864 ; it was moulting, and ap- New England, breeding rather numer- 

 parently a female." Though this bird ously in certain parts of southern Con- 

 may actually have wandered here from necticut and northern Maine and New 

 its home in South America, yet such an Hampshire, but only sparingly in east- 

 incident is not likely to occur again." ern Massachusetts. W. B. 



a There are perhaps good grounds 112 Wilson says that he has " known 



for the suspicion now very generally instances where it was attached by the 



entertained that the specimen here side to an old moss-grown trunk ; and 



referred to was substituted by the tax- others where it was fastened on a strong 



idermist from whom it was received rank stalk, or weed, in the garden." 



for the bird which I shot and placed in I have been told that the Humming- 



his hands for preservation. At least birds were once very abundant on the 



my slight acquaintance at that time Isles of Shoals, where there were no 



with even our commonest birds would trees. 



