HUMMING-BIRDS. 71 



Ruby-crested Humming-bird, which describe its 

 manner of building, I have copied from a letter re- 

 ceived a few weeks since from my very active cor- 

 respondent, Mr Kirk, resident in the island of To- 

 bago. Speaking of the appearance of this species 

 in that island, he says, " Thus the Ruby Humming- 

 bird makes its appearance here on the 1st of February. 

 Some say it is found in the leeward part of the 

 island all the year ; others, that it arrives earlier by 

 a month than to the windward ; the latter I think 

 more probable. Certain I am, that there is no indi- 

 vidual in the island who takes so much exercise in 

 the woods as I do ; and I can positively say, that 

 since the 1st of August last, and perhaps some time 

 previous, until the 1st of February, I have not seen 

 one of these birds ; and now (1st March) they are 

 abundant. They begin to make their nest about the 

 1 Oth of February. I now know of several contain- 

 ing two eggs each, and watched one yesterday for 

 nearly an hour. Her manner of construction was 

 very ingenious : bringing a pile of small grass or 

 lichen, she commenced upon a small twig, about a 

 quarter of an inch in diameter, immediately below a 

 large leaf, which entirely covers and conceals the 

 nest from above, the height from the ground being 

 about three feet. After the nest had received two 

 or three of these grasses, she set herself in the centre, 

 and putting her long slender beak over the outer 

 edge, seemed to use it and her throat much in the 

 same way as a mason does his trowel, for the pur- 



