HUMMING-BIRDS. 
71 
Ruby-crested Humming-bird, which describe its 
manner of building, I Iiave copied from a letter re- 
ceived a few weeks since from my very active cor- 
respondent, Mr Kirk, resident in the island of To- 
bago. Speaking of the appearance of this species 
in that island, he says, “ Thus the Ruby Humming- 
bird makes its appearance here on the 1st of February. 
Some say it is found in the leeward part of the 
island all the year ; others, that it arrives earlier by 
a month than to the windward ; the latter I think 
more probable. Certain I am, that there is no indi- 
vidual in the island who takes so much exercise in 
the woods as I do ; and I can positively say, that 
since the 1st of August last, and perhaps some lime 
previous, until the 1st of February, I have not seen 
one of these birds ; and now (1st March) they are 
abundant. They begin to make their nest about the 
10th of February. I now know of several contain- 
ing two eggs each, and watched one yesterday for 
nearly an hour. Her manner of construction was 
very ingenious : bringing a pile of small grass or 
lichen, she commenced upon a small twig, about a 
quarter of an inch in diameter, immediately below a 
large leaf, which entirely covers and conceals the 
nest from above, the height from the ground being 
about three feet. After the nest had received two 
or three of these grasses, she set herself in the centre, 
and putting her long slender beak over the outer 
edge, seemed to use it and her throat much in the 
same way as a mason does his trowel, for the pur- 
