the case of this one in the maple. I caught a 

 glimpse of a humming-bird flashing around the 

 high limbs of a chestnut, so far up that she looked 

 no bigger than a hornet. I suspected instantly 

 that she was gathering lichens for a nest, and, as 

 she darted off, I threw my eyes ahead of her 

 across her path. It was just one chance in ten 

 thousand if I even saw her speeding through the 

 limbs and leaves, if I got the line of her flight, 

 to say nothing of a clue to her nesting-place. It 

 was little short of a miracle. I had tried many 

 times before to do it, but this is the only time I 

 ever succeeded : my line of vision fell directly 

 upon the tiny builder as she dropped to her nest 

 in the sapling. 



The structure was barely started. I might 

 have stared at it with the strongest glass and 

 never made it out a nest ; the sapling, too, was 

 no thicker at the butt than my wrist, and I 

 should not have dreamed of looking into its tall, 

 spindling top for any kind of a nest. Further- 

 more, as if to rob one of the last possibility of 

 discovering it, a stray bud, two years before, had 

 pushed through the bark of the limb about three 

 inches behind where the nest was to be fixed, and 

 [166] 



