98 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 



It was so placed that the bottom of the nest did not 

 rest directly on the limb, but hung a little to one 

 side, so that the future little birds would rest in the 

 swing of a hammock rather than on the hard founda- 

 tion of the branch itself. The nest was lashed to the 

 limb with strand after strand of cobwebs carried and 

 wound around and around, until the whole structure 

 was firmly anchored by myriads of almost invisible 

 but tough little ropes. Inside, it was lined with the 

 soft yellowish-white fluffy fleece found inside milk- 

 weed pods. Next came a layer of reddish-brown seed- 

 husks, all bound and lashed together with a network 

 of cobwebs. On the outside was a layer of dull 

 ashy-green lichen-scales. Each minute separate 

 fragment was fitted into a mosaic which covered 

 the whole nest. Outside of everything was another 

 almost invisible network of cobwebs, like the net of 

 a balloon which holds the round globe within. 

 There must have been hundreds of gossamer strands 

 making up this network, all so fine that only by the 

 closest examination could they be seen. 



Every bird's nest is a miracle, but I don't know 

 any that is such a marvel of industry and ingenuity 

 and beauty as that of the ruby-throated bird. Later 

 on, when Mrs. Hummingbird was through with her 

 home, I collected it, and had an opportunity of see- 

 ing just what the building of that nest meant to 

 her — for, sad to say, Mr. H. B. never moves a 

 claw to help in home-building. The labor of col- 

 lecting the spider-webs alone, to say nothing of 

 the hundreds of lichen-flecks and seed-husks, would 



