318 



LIFE. IN ITS HIGHER FORMS, 



feathers for a lining, preferring the down of catkins, of the 

 coltsfoot, cotton-grass, and other downy plants of the 

 season. It has been, however, observed, that birds will 

 commonly take the materials for building which they can 

 most easily procure, within certain limits of resemblance 

 of course, and always having regard to their suitability, 

 and to the general plan and style of the building. " On 

 the 10th of May, 1792," says Bolton, "I observed a pair 

 of Goldfinches beginning to make their nest in my garden; 

 they had formed the groundwork with moss, grass, &c 3 as 

 usual, but on my scattering small parcels of wool in dif- 

 ferent parts of the garden, they in a great measure left off 

 the use of their own stuff, and employed the wool. After- 

 wards I gave them cotton, on which they rejected the wool, 

 and proceeded with the cotton : the third day I supplied 

 them with fine down, Bn which they forsook both the 

 other, and finished their work with this last article. The 

 nest, when completed, was somewhat larger than is usually 

 made by this bird, but retained the pretty roundness of 

 figure and neatness of workmanship which is proper to the 

 Goldfinch." * 



But we, in this country, have no nest that can compare 

 for neatness with the tiny structures built by the Hum- 

 ming-birds of the Western hemisphere. That of the small- 

 est of birds, the Vervain Humming-bird {Mellisuga humilis) 

 of Jamaica, we have often had an opportunity of seeing in 

 those lovely hesperidan glades. It is usually affixed to 

 the upper side of a horizontal twig of bamboo, just over a 

 joint, so that the diverging twigs are embraced by its found- 

 ation. Fancy a little hemispherical cup, about as big as 



* "Harcnonia Ruralis," i. Pref. 



