HUMMING lilKDS. 



557 



bility do not rear more than three, or perhaps four, young in the 

 course of a season. 



The general habits of this tiny bird are well worthy of notice, 

 but at present we must content ourselves with it as it appears in 

 its nest-making capacity. Being a very small bird, only three 

 inches and a half in total length, and very slenderly made, the 

 uest is necessarily small. But, although we so often find that 

 little birds build large nests, we cannot but notice that the nest 

 of this Humming Bird is even smaller than the size of its occu- 

 pant seems to require. It is round, neatly made, and has thick 

 walls and a small hollow. 



Tlie bird has a wonderful power of concealing the nest, which 

 cannot be discovered except by a practised nest-hunter, so closely 

 does it resemble a knob upon a branch. So careful, too, is the 

 female of her home, that she does not fly straight to it, but rises 

 high in the air, and then darts down among the branches with 

 such rapidity that the eye cannot follow her movements, and she 

 is fairly seated in her nest before the spectator knows exactly in 

 which direction she has gone. 



This curious trait seems to have been discovered by Mr. C. W. 

 Webber. He had successfully tamed some Euby-throats, and 

 determined to find a nest, so that he might obtain the young. 

 After finding that a pair of Humming Birds had been seen near 

 a certain spot on a river, he set himself determinately to dis- 

 cover the nest. By degrees they were watched to a point of the 

 river, but there they always disappeared, as they had a habit of 

 shooting perpendicularly into the air until their tiny bodies were 

 lost to sight. At last, however, the patient watchfulness of the 

 observer was rewarded by catching a glimpse of the female bird, 

 as she descended perpendicularly from the height to which she 

 had risen, and in this manner was the nest discovered. 



The same agreeable writer relates an anecdote respecting the 

 discovery of a nest belonging to the Emerald-throated Humming 

 Bird, an edifice which is very similar to that which is made by 

 the Euby-throat. He had been in vain looking for a nest, when 

 " chance favoured me somewhat strangely about this time. I 

 had been out squirrel-shooting early one sweltering hot morning, 

 and on my return had thrown myself beneath the shade of a thick 

 hickory, near the bank of a creek. 1 lay on my back, looking 

 listlessly oiit over the stream, when the chirp of the Humming 



