THE HUMMING-BIRD. 
23 
I am afraid the humming-bird is a very 
passionate little fellow. He will even go 
into a rage with a flower that does not please 
him, or has not so much honey in it as he 
expected ; and then he tears it to pieces and 
scatters it with his bills and claws. 
Perhaps the best part of his character comes 
out when he is helping his little partner to 
build their nest. He brings her all the 
materials, and flies about collecting them with 
the greatest industry. The tiny nest is gene- 
rally hung to the end of a twig of the orange 
or pomegranate tree, and is completely hidden 
by one of the large leaves that overhangs it, 
and forms a canopy. The nest is sometimes 
made entirely of thistle-down ; and the prickly 
burs of the thistle are stuck outside to pro- 
tect it. But moss and cotton are used quite as 
often, and dead leaves woven in among them. 
The cotton grows upon a tree called the 
silk-cotton tree, and I must tell you some- 
thing about it. It is a very large tree indeed, 
and is looked upon bj^ the black people* with 
great veneration. They never venture to 
* Of Africa and the West Indies. 
