Cap. XV. The Caribby-lflands. 



Though his plumage lofe much of its beauty when he is 

 dead,yet is there fo much left 3 that fome Ladies have worn them 

 for Pendants : Nay fome have imagined they became them bet- 

 ter then any other. 



This miraculous Bird is not only extreamly delightful as to 

 his colours, but there is one kind of it which having recreated 

 the eye, fatisiies alfo the noftril by the fweetnefs of his fcent, 

 which is like that of the fineft Muik and Amber. 



He commonly makes his neft under a final! branch of fome 

 Orange-tree, or Cotton-tree, and as it muft be proportiona- 

 ble to the fmallnefs of his bulk, he fo covers it among the leaves, 

 and fo induftrioully fecures it againft the injuries of the wea- 

 ther, that it is in a manner imperceptible : he is fuchan excel- 

 lent Architedlj that to prevent his being expos'd to the Eafterly 

 and Northerly Winds, which are the ordinary winds in thofe 

 parts, he places his neft towards the South : It confifts on the 

 out-fide of little firings taken from a Plant called Pite 0 and 

 wherewith the Indians make their cordage : Thefe little firings 

 or filaments are as fmall as a mans hair, but much ftronger : 

 He ties them and weaves them one into another fo clofely 

 about the little forked branch which he hath chofen for the 

 perpetuation of hisfpecies, that the nefl being thus among the 

 leaves,, and hanging under the branch, is, as we faid before,both 

 out of fight and out of danger : Having made it flrong and 

 fortifi'd it on the out-fide with thefe filaments, and by fome lit- 

 tle bits of bark and fmall herbs interlaced one within another 

 by a miraculous artifice, he furnifhes it within with the fineft 

 Cotton, and the Down of certain little feathers fofter then any 

 filk: The Female commonly lays but two egges which are 

 oval, about the bignefs of a Pea or fmall Pearl. 



To what is abovefaid we mall add the account given of it 

 by our noble Traveller (du Montel) in his familiar Relations to 

 a friend of his .• cc There are, faith he 0 fometimes found the 

 cC nefts of the Colibris under the branches of thofe Plants of To- 

 cc bacco which are fuffered to grow as high as they can for feed, 

 cC I remember a Negro of ours Ihew'd me one of them, which 

 cc was very neatly fafhioned, under one of thofe branches : Nay 

 cc being in S. Chrifiophers^ an Englijfj-man fhew'd me one of them, 

 cc which was faftened to one of the Reeds that fuftain'd theco- 

 cc vering of a Hut. I faw alfo one of thefe nefts, together with 

 cc the egges, which was faftened to a branch that had been cut 

 cc off to adorn the Clofet of a curious perfon, who had alfo the 

 cc Male and Female dried and preferv'd entire 3 and there it 

 tc was that I attentively confidered both the Neft and Bird 3 and 

 Ci having admired the operations of Divine Providence in that 

 cc little creature, how could I lefs then be aftonilh'd at the mira- 

 cc culous Architecture of the Neft, which though built with 

 "an unexprefiible artifice], was neverthelefs performed only 

 cc with his little beak ? " There 



