xxii 



INTRODUCTION. 



its habits, and find out where it dwelt, even if they did not 

 desire to possess the dazzling prize, and so they would follow it, 

 and not be deterred from the chase by many obstacles. So it 

 is with the naturalist in pursuit of facts, which he stores up and 

 arranges, and classifies, making each fresh one obtained as a sort 

 of key to explain others already in his possession, or as a light 

 which shall guide him to the acquirement of newer and more 

 valuable facts. Many riddles, we say, has nature yet for man's 

 solution; and God has wisely ordained that he shall find them 

 out slowly, and only after much toil and study. He makes mis- 

 takes very often, thinks he has found out some wonderful secret, 

 and cries "Ah, ah, I have it!" as a boy does when he puts his 

 cap upon a butterfly, and lifting it cautiously, finds no butterfly 

 there, or only a poor crushed and disfigured thing, not worth the 

 catching. But his mistakes are sure to be corrected by after- 

 experience; and they do him good, by teaching him not to be 

 too confident in his own powers. 



So much for this question of domed nests; and now let us 

 take the thread of our Humming Bird's history. We will suppose 

 the patient mother to be sitting in that little round nest of hers, 

 in the midst of some odoriferous shrub, in all the glory of a 

 South American summer, when 



"The silent hills and forest tops seem reeling in the heat." 



The father is busy searching for food; he has not done so well as 

 he could wish amid the bells, and trumpets, and long pendant 

 tubes of the garden, and he feels inclined to try a change of 

 diet. This is in Vera Cruz, where the houses of the Spanish 

 residents are built so as to leave an open space in the centre; 

 here they have commonly a fountain playing amid the shrubs and 

 fruit trees, and rich flower-borders. The buildings, which on four 

 sides surround this cultivated plot, are but one story high, and 

 have shelving roofs, which project six or seven feet from the 

 walls, covering a walk all round, and leaving but a small open 

 space between the tiles and the trees in the centre. Prom the 

 edges of these tiles innumerable spiders, called bird-spiders, be- 

 cause they are supposed to be sufficiently large and strong to 

 seize and detain some of the smaller birds — although this is ques- 

 tionable, have spread their webs so closely and compactly, that 

 they resemble a net. After passing once or twice round the 

 court, as if to make sure of the best points of attack, the active 

 little Hummer passes beneath the web, and begins to pick out 

 the smallest of the entangled flies which are making hopeless 

 attempts to escape from the snares of Giant Grim, who rushes 



