THE HUMMING-BIRDS i8i 



a movement that one's eye has to be very quick to follow it 

 and keep it in view. 



The beak itself is long, as well as the tongue. One 

 kind, the Sword-billed Humming-Bird, in particular, has 

 an exceptionally long slender beak, which enables him to 

 overtake many an insect which has crawled up the long 

 bell-like blooms of the gorgeous forest flowers ; while the 

 bill of another is curved to a really remarkable degree. 



As you might expect, the nest of the Hununing-Bird is 

 a veritable fairy's cradle. It is woven of all sorts of soft 

 and delicate things — the down from the stalks and seeds of 

 certain plants and ferns, cotton- wool, and the like. It is 

 quite a strong, durable little structure, but the outside is 

 daintily covered with spider-webs and fragments of j^retty 

 lichen. Cup-shaped or purse-shaped, it hangs from some 

 twig or leaf, and here the two almost transparent white 

 eggs are laid and the tiny babies are cradled and fed. 



The nest of one of the largest species, Waterton tells 

 us, is distinguished by having the rim doubled inwards. 

 He thought at first this was caused accidentally by 

 the pressure of the mother-bird's body when brooding, 

 but he found that it was intentional and made so for a 

 purpose. He noticed that this species loved to build in 

 the drooping branches of trees overhanging some shady 

 fresh-water creek or unsunned forest stream. The winds 

 that come blowing up these waterways shake and sway 

 the hanging cradle to such a degree, that were it not for 

 the in-curving edge to the nest, the precious eggs would 

 speedily be jerked out. 



P. H. Gosse, the traveller and naturalist, loved to watch 

 these winged elves of the forest among the mountain 

 valleys of Jamaica. He was charmed with their beauty, 

 and with their swift fearless flight. " Sitting on a fallen 



