THE NIDOLOGIST 31 
it was constructed with the view of accom- 
modating either parent while the other was 
sitting. The aperture alluded to served, 
doubtless, for the head of the non sitting 
bird, who, from this position, looking away 
from the main building, could, like a sentry 
upon an outpost, detect with comparative 
ease and readiness the approach of enemies. 
The illustration gives a fair idea of the nest 
in its prominent details. 
In Eastern Pennsylvaniarare, curious nests 
of Acadian Flycatcher’s are often found. 
Such a one was discovered by the writer in 
June, 1882. It was placed upon the forked 
brench of a small red oak. The dried blos- 
soms of the hickory, which are the sole 
materials of the ordinary structure in this 
latitude, were here altogether wanting. In 
lieu thereof, long fibres of the inner bark of 
some herbaceous plant were substituted. 
These were compactly modeled into a shal- 
low, saucer-like cavity, from which de- 
pended a gradually slopizg train of the 
same substance, for nearly twelve inches. 
A pair of Kingbirds once took a fancy to 
an old apple-tree that stood a few yards 
from the writer’s Germantown home. It 
NEST OF ACADIAN FLYCATCHER 
was certainly not a place of quiet and retire- 
ment. Scores of noisy children daily re- 
sorted to its shelter for coolness and pas- 
time, but the birds were not uneasy. They 
had fixed their minds upon the spot, and 
build they did. ‘The nest was placed upon 
a forked branch just out of the reach of the 
urchins. It wasa curious affair. Roots of 
various kinds constituted the bulk of the 
fabric; but, as its completion was near at 
hand, the opportune discovery of a bunch 
of carpet rags was hailed with delight, and 
they were prompily adjusted to the outside, 
a number ofends being allowed to depend 
from the margin and bottom, for a distance 
of fourteen inches, whether for ornament or 
protection, I cannot say, but I am half in- 
clined to believe that the latter was the ob- 
ject uppermost in the minds of the builders, 
for, looking from below at the nest, it 
seemed merely a mass of rags that had been 
thrown into the crotch and become lodged. 
The common Ruby-throated Humming- 
bird of the eastern half of the United States 
is known to makea nest which is not easily 
imitated by any other species. Nests have 
been found by the writer, formed of the 
yellowish wool of the undeveloped fronds 
of the fern, and others of red shoddy—the 
refuse of some woolen factory—instead of 
thesoft down of the seeds of the poplar. 
But the most remarkable structure of ail 
was found in Germantown, in the summer 
of 1883. It was saddled upon the horizon- 
tal bough of a white oak, andis peculiar 
from the nature of the inner fabric. This 
isa brown wooly substance plucked from a 
species of fungus, possibly a sphaerza, which 
for softness and pliability is admirably 
suited for nest-building. Nothing of the 
kind, I think, has ever before been recorded. 
eee 
Habits of Anna’s Hummingbird. 
BY A. W. ANTHONY. 
OMETIME about April 1,an Anna’s 
Hummingbird began her nest in a 
cypress in frent of my residence in San 
Diego. I could not be sure as to the exact 
date of beginning, but on the 6th, when I 
first noticed the bird at work, there was 
nothing but a little platform the size of a 
silver twenty-five cent piece, fastened to 
the upper side of a twig which nearly over- 
hung the front walk, and was but just high 
enough to escape being struck by anyone 
passing below. 
From an upper window I could look 
down upon the growth of the downy cup, 
and watch the diminutive builder from a 
distance of but a few feet, as she brought 
almost imperceptible quantities ef of cotton 
and tucked them into the sides and rim of 
