HUMMING BIEDS. 
11 
quickness and circumspection. When lie aliglits, 
which is frequently, he always prefers the small dead 
twigs of a tree or bush, where he dresses and arranges 
his plumage with great dexterity. His only note is a 
single chirp, not louder than that of a small cricket 
or grasshopper, generally uttered while passing from 
flower to flower, or when engaged in flight with his 
fellows, which is by no means an uiifrequent occur- 
rence.”'* He sometimes enters a room by the window, 
examines the bouquets of flowers, and passes out by 
the opposite door or window. He has been known to 
take refuge in a hothouse during the cool nights of 
autumn, to go regidarly out in the morning, and to 
return as regularly in the evening, for several days 
together. 
The nest of this species is about an inch in 
diameter, and as much in depth. It is generally 
placed on the upper side of a horizontal branch, 
not among the twigs, but on the body of the branch 
itself, and from ten to twenty feet above the ground. 
Sometimes it has been found attached by the side to 
an old, moss-grown trunk, or fastened to the stalk of 
a strong rank weed. 
The outward coat is formed of small pieces of a 
species of bluish-grey lichen, that vegetates on old 
trees and fences, thickly glued with the saliva of the 
bird, giving firmness and consistency to the whole, as 
well as keeping out moisture. Within this are thick, 
matted layers of the fine wings of certain flying seeds, 
closely laid together ; and, lastly, the downy sub- 
stance from the great mullein and from the stalks of 
* American Ornithology. 
