The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird 177 



jecting over the sidewalk, I noticed what seemed to be a pe- 

 culiar excrescence. I stopped and gave it a second look, and 

 sure enough, there was the hummingbird's nest that I had long 

 been looking for. I now have a specimen in my collection 

 which I obtained in the summer of 1906. Some children acci- 

 dentally discovered it while playing in the sand under a beech 

 tree at Somerleaze. They heard a buzzing noise above them 

 and looking up saw the female alighting upon her nest, which 

 was saddled upon an outstretched limb of the tree in much the 

 same manner as that in the first illustration. Like that, it 

 was larger than the limb upon which it was saddled. The 

 cup of it was just large enough for me to put the end of my 

 thumb into it. The diminutive size of one of these nests is 

 beautifully shown in the second illustration made from a pho- 

 tograph taken by Dr. Kellogg, which shows that the nest and 

 the birds together are smaller than the rose above them. 



Major Bendire's description of the building of the nest is 

 so good that I give it in full. He says, "It is one of the most 

 exquisite pieces of bird architecture to be found anywhere. The 

 circular foundation is composed of bits of lichens, mixed with 

 fine vegetable fibers, which are apparently firmly glued to the 

 twig on which the nest is saddled, presumably with the saliva 

 secreted by the bird for this purpose, and the structure is built 

 upon this, the inner portions of it being composed of soft, 

 downy plant fibers, such as the silky down of different species 

 of willows and poplars, that are found on the young and un- 

 expanded leaves of the oaks and various kinds of ferns, espec- 

 ially that from the young stalks of the common brake, the silky 

 down of the milkweed, and similar materials from other 

 sources. After these have been well worked together in a sort 

 of vegetable felt, the outer walls of the nest are profusely cov- 

 ered with a coating of bits of lichens obtained from the trunks 

 of limbs of trees in the vicinity, and these are firmly fastened 

 in place with spider webs, giving the nest the appearance of a 

 small, lichen covered knot, which for this reason is very diffi- 

 cult to detect. In nearly every instance the nest is placed so 

 that its contents are protected from above by the leaves of the 

 trees or a limb directly over it, and it is rare to find one in a 

 perfectly open and unsheltered situation. The location of the 



