234 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



central tail-feathers, which are very narrow, and twice as long as 

 the bird from the point of the beak to the root of the tail. They 

 cross each other as the bird is at rest, and their colour is deep 

 purple-black. The rest of the plumage is most lovely, the 

 upper parts being green, with a golden gloss, and the throat and 

 lower parts emerald-green. The top of the head is deep velvet- 

 like black, and surmounted with a small plume. These are the 

 colours of the adult male, the female being without the two long 

 feathers in the tail, the top of the head brown, and the throat 

 and breast white slightly speckled with green. 



In the accompanjdng illustration may be seen figures of the 

 nests made by three different species of humming birds, each 

 of which is remarkable for some peculiarity of structure, though 

 they are all pensile. 



The first of these nests is that which is made by the White- 

 sided Hill Star {Oreotrochilus leucqpleurus); a native of the 

 Andes of Acoueagua, inhabiting a zone of very great elevation, 

 seldom being seen less than ten thousand feet above the level of 

 the sea. With the exception of a bright emerald-green gorget, 

 it is rather a dull-coloured bird, the prevailing hue being brown. 

 The nest is shaped something like a hammock, not unlike that 

 of the lanceolated honey-eater, described and figured on page 

 226, and is fastened, not to a twig or a leaf or a branch, but to 

 the side of a rock, being suspended by one side so as to leave 

 the remainder free. 



As is the case with the generality of humming birds' nests, 

 cobwebs are employed for the purpose of fastening the structure 

 to the object to which it hangs. The materials of which the 

 nest is made, are chiefly moss, down, and feathers, the feathers 

 being profusely stuck on the outside. 



This is not the only humming bird which hangs its nest from 

 rocks, for the lovely Sappho Comet {Gametes sparganurus), 

 sometimes called the Bar-tailed Humming Bird, on account of 

 the dark bars which cross its tail, has a similar custom. 



This splendid bird inhabits Bolivia, and is a very familiar and 

 bold little creature. The nest is made chiefly of vegetable fibres 

 and moss, and furnished with a long appendage similar to those 

 which are made by so many humming birds, for no conceivable 

 reason. T!ie nest is lined with hair, probably that of the vis- 



