222 Wonders of the Bird World 



the case, with delicate Hchens. In many instances it cannot 

 be doubted that the Httle Hummers are imbued with a 

 sense of the necessity of protective resemblance, and some 

 of them have been known to place their nests on a branch 

 in the close vicinity of a pine-cone, with one of the latter 

 hanging from the branch above, so that the nest would 

 appear merely as a little additional swelling like another 

 cone on the lower branch. Professor Robert Ridgway, in 

 his Essay on the Humming-birds, ^ 

 has figured many of the nests con- 

 structed by these wonderful little 

 creatures. There we see that they 

 construct their tiny nests in every 

 kind of situation. Sometimes they 

 are sewn to the extreme tip of a 

 palm-leaf, or they may be a firm cup 

 woven on to a slender branch, and 

 often concealed by the overhanging 

 foliage. One very curious nest, or 

 rather assemblage of nests, is here 

 figured from the plate published by 

 Professor Ridgway. It represents 

 four separate nests of the Calliope 

 Humming-bird {SteHn/a calliope), 

 built one on the top of the other, 

 apparently in successive seasons, but, as it is evident 

 that another nest superimposed on the three others 

 would certainly upset the balance, the fourth nest is built 

 on the lower side, and is thus counterbalanced by the 

 weight of the three preceding nests on the other side of the 

 twig. This would seem to indicate a high standard of 

 reasoning power in the Humming-birds, and many ob- 

 servers attribute to them remarkable intelligence ; certainly 

 ' ' Report of the United States National Museum,' vol. for 1890, pp. 

 253-383- 



Four nests of Stelliila calliope. 

 {After Ridgway.) 



