iUS 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



tlie higher latitudes with the advance of summer, and again 

 retreating at the approacli of autumn. 



The nests of the Humming-birds are as elegant and neat as 

 their tiny constructors ; true masterpieces of architectural 

 instinct. Some are suspended from twigs or attached to a 

 branch ; others enjoy the slielter of some overhanging rock, 

 and others again cling to a leaf. Spider webs are generally 

 employed for fastening the nest to the support on which it 

 liangs, or for interweaving tlie moss or the vegetable fibres used 

 in its construction, so as to form a firm and wet-resisting mass. 

 Soft cotton down or fine hairs line its interior, and to screen it 

 from the piercing eye of an enemy it is frequently covered with 



FIERY TOPAZ AND HERMIT. 



patches of lichen, which render its external appearance as 

 similar as possible to that of the branch on which it is placed. 

 The nest of the Fiery Topaz, one of the most magnificent of the 

 humming-birds, glittering in scarlet, crimson, and emerald 

 green, is particularly curious. It is formed of a kind of tough, 

 leathery, thick and soft fungus, like German tinder, and this 

 apparently intractable substance the bird contrives to mould 

 into the shape of a nest so closely resembling in colour the 



