xxiv INTRODUCTION. 



who has lived \n the country and paid any attention to natural liistory, that does not recollect that of the 

 Hedge-Accentor QAccentor modularis) with its beautiful blue eggs ; or has he ever ceased to wonder at the 

 surprising construction of the nest of the Bottle-Tit {Mechtiira caudatd) ? their domestic architecture is 

 indeed among the most interesting of the many singular features in the economy of birds. And how truly 

 wonderful are some of the nests of the Humming-Birds ! In form and size they vary as much as the different 

 structure of the birds would lead us to expect, and a similar difference occurs in the situations in which 

 they are placed. Some of these cradles are not larger than the half of a walnut-shell, and these coracle- 

 shaped structure are among the neatest and most beautiful. The members of the genus TrocMlns and 

 their allies expend the greatest ingenuity, not so much in their construction as in the lavish decoration 

 of their outer walls; with the utmost taste do these birds instinctively fasten thereon beautiful pieces of flat 

 lichen, the larger pieces in the middle, and the smaller on the part attached to the branch. It is a question 

 among ornithologists whether these adornments are fixed on by a glutinous secretion from the bird, or by 

 the invisible webs of some of the smaller kinds of spiders; my own belief is, that the latter is the means 

 employed. Now and then a pretty feather is intertwined or fastened to the outer side, the stem being 

 always so placed that the feather stands out beyond the surftxce. These little cup-shaped nests are frequently 

 placed on the bifurcation of the horizontal part of a branch near the ground, and at other times higher up 

 towards the summit. Quite the reverse of this kind of nest are those built by the Phaethovfiithes : these 

 latter are generally very frail structures, woven round and attached to the side of a drooping palm-leaf, very 

 frequently overhanging water. Such a nest is figured in my plate of P. Eurynome. Another, of a similar 

 form, but of different materials, is figured in the same volume, in the plate Illustrative of P. Eremita, with 

 two young ones therein. 



• 



Other Humming-Blrds suspend their nests to the sides of rocks. These are hammock-shaped in form, 



and are most ingeniously attached to the face of the rock by means of spiders' webs and the cottony materials 



of which they are sometimes built. Those made by the Oreoirochili are very large, and composed of wool, 



llama hair, moss, and feathers ; at the top of this great mass, of nearly the size of a child's head, is a little 



cup-shaped depression in which the eggs are deposited. Respecting the nest made by the Oreotrochilus 



Pkhincha, my friend Professor Jameson, of Quito, writes, "On the first of the present month (November 



1858), I visited the snowy mountain of Antlsana in company with the American Minister. In the celebrated 



Farm-house (about 13,500 feet above the sea) I found in one of the lower or ground-apartments, unprovided 



with a door, several nests of Oreotrochilus Pichincha, one of which was attached to a straw rope suspended 



from the roof. I am quite certain as to the identity of the species, having shot one of the birds. The 



rest will be sent to you in my next parcel." See the figure of this nest given by Dr. Sclater in the 



'Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1860, p. 80. 



Some of the Humming-Blrds, and perhaps this very species, are said to suspend their great nests by the 

 middle from the fine hanging root of a tree, or a tendril; and should the nest, which Is of a curved form 

 and built of any coarse materials at hand, prove to be heavier on one side than the other, the higher side is 

 weighted with a small stone or square piece of earth until an equilibrium is established and the eggs pre- 

 vented from rolling out. If such powers, so nearly approaching to that of reason, should be doubted by some 

 of my readers, I can assure them that one or more of these loaded nests are contained in the Loddiwsian 

 Collection ; and one is at this moment before me, an examination of which will satisfy the most sceptical of 

 the truth of this statement. Occasionally the old nests are repaired or built over the old one, two, three, or 

 more years in succession. Many other Instances might be given to show that the nidlfication of the 



