THE HUMMING-BIRD'S NEST. 
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temperate clime, but return with the sun when it has reached the 
equator in its returning course. They belong to the torrid zone, says 
Waterton, and there alone can they find their nutriment in the winter 
months. It is in the torrid zone of the New World, he adds, that we 
are to look for the family of the humming-bird in all its species, — a 
family adorned with plumage of such amazing brilliancy as to compete 
with, if not surpass, the united splendour of our most precious stones 
themselves. Linden's helmet-crest, or black warrior, however, delights 
in the vjgorous air of the mountain-top; being found among the heights 
of the Sierra Nevada of Colombia, upwards of 13,000 feet above the 
sea, where he enlivens the solitude with his beauty. His crest is white 
as the mountain-snow. 
For the construction of his nest, the humming-bird's materials are 
gathered from trees, plants, and spiders' webs. Of course, the dainty 
builder requires a dainty home; but in the work of difterent species 
an interesting variety miiy be noticed. Some nests are formed of an 
7 
linden's HELMET-(;I!EST 
