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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, &e., 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, on 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 (Mellvsuga 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 
* “ Harmon i a Ruralis,” i. Pref. 
