BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



185 



last week in May. A nest now before me measures a little over one 

 inch and a half in height and one inch and a half in diameter ; the cavity 

 is three-quarters of an inch wide and the same in depth. This nest was 

 built on the upright limb of a beech tree, where for three consecutive 

 years a pair of hummers regularly nested, each season building a new 

 nest over the few remaining fragments of their abode of the previous 

 year. The white eggs, never more than two in number, are elliptical in 

 shape, equally obtuse at both ends and measure .50 by .33 of an inch. 

 The period of incubation is about ten days. Occasionally, though 

 rarely I think, two broods are reared in one season. Although these 

 birds feed among the flowers of various plants, they prefer those of the 

 horse chestnut, honeysuckle and trumpet vine. From the fact that these 

 diminutive creatures are generally observed about flowering plants, the 

 popular yet erroneous belief has arisen that they subsist entirely on the 

 sweets of flowers. 



FOOD NOTES. 



In addition to my own examinations given in the above table, it might 

 be added that in March and April, 1885, I shot seventeen of these birds 

 in the Florida orange orchards and found that all had only insects in their 

 viscera. May 14, 1886, I received from Mr. George Hartman of, West 

 Chester, Pa., fifteen hummers which had been captured while feeding 

 among the flowers of a horse chestnut tree. The stomachs of these 

 birds, which were kindly examined for me by Prof. C. V. Biley, ento- 

 mologist, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., 

 showed, chiefly, the remains of small spiders and some few coleopterous 

 insects. 



These seventeen birds were all killed when feeding in horse-chestnut trees. 



