THORNS ON THE ROSE 91 



would immediately undo the work of the bird. No ac- 

 count was taken of the Chimney Swift, which not only 

 glues together the twigs of its nest but secures the 

 whole to a support through an abundant salivary secre- 

 tion, although this habit had long been known. In the 

 instance of this hummingbird, however, both Audubon 

 and Waterton were partly right and partly wrong, as 

 a careful examination of the nests of five species of 

 hummingbirds, including the Ruby-throat, has clearly 

 shown. 33 It proved that saliva was only casually used 

 on the surface of the nest, the lichens in the case referred 

 to being adherent by means of spiders' silk and fine veg- 

 etable fibers of various sorts; the saliva of the Ruby- 

 throat, when dry, moreover, was found to be practically 

 insoluble in cold water, even after an immersion of sev- 

 eral days ; but more interesting than this is the fact that 

 the nest itself is glued to its supporting twig by a large 

 salivary wafer, which represents this hummingbird's first 

 step in the work of nest construction. 



Shortly after his arrival at Edinburgh, and before 

 he had published anything, Audubon wrote in his jour- 

 nal on November 5, 1826: "I returned home early and 

 found a note from Mr. John Gregg, who came himself 

 later, bringing me a scrubby letter from Charles Water- 

 ton," so it would appear that the lord of "Walton Hall" 

 had been warned to keep an eye on the dangerous Amer- 

 ican, and Waterton's American correspondent was Mr. 

 Ord, of Philadelphia. Later on Waterton wrote to 

 Swainson an extraordinary letter of some four thousand 

 words, 34 afterwards published in his Essays on Natural 

 History, which for petty vanity and personal animosity 



33 



See "Nests and Nest-Building in Birds," Pt. 2, Journal of Animal Be- 

 havior, vol. i (1911). 



84 See Bibliography, No. 138. 



