458 
HUMMING BIRDS. 
forsaken. Desultory in its movements, roving only through 
the region of blooming sweets, its visits to the Northern States 
are delayed till the month of May. Still later, as if deter- 
mined that no flower shall “ blush unseen, or waste its sweet- 
ness on the desert air,” our little sylph, on wings as rapid as 
the wind, at once launches without hesitation into the flowery 
wilderness of the north. 
1 he first cares ot the little busy pair are now bestowed on 
their expected progeny. This ipstinct alone propelled them 
from their hibernal retreat within the tropics ; strangers amidst 
their numerous and brilliant tribe, they seek only a transient 
asylum in the milder regions of their race. With the earliest 
dawn of the northern spring, in pairs, as it were with the celer- 
ity of thought, they dart at intervals through the dividing 
space, till they again arrive in the genial and more happy re- 
gions of their birth. The enraptured male is now assiduous 
in attention to his mate ; forgetful of selfish wants, he feeds 
his companion with nectared sweets, and jealous of danger 
and interniption to the sole companion of his delights, he often 
almost seeks a quarrel with the giant birds which surround him : 
he attacks even the Kingbird, and drives the gliding Martin 
to the retreat of his box. The puny nest is now prepared in 
the long-accustomed orchard or neighboring forest. It is con- 
cealed by an artful imitation of the mossy branch to which 
it is firmly attached and incorporated. Bluish-gray lichens, 
^-gglutinated by saliva and matched wuth surrounding objects, 
instinctively form the deceiving external coat ; portions of the 
cunning architecture, for further security, are even tied down 
to the supporting station. Within are laid copious quantities of 
the pappus or other down of plants ; the inner layer of this 
exquisite bed is finished with the shortwood of the budding 
Platanus, the mullein, or the soft clothing of unfolding fern- 
stalks. Incubation, so tedious to the volatile pair, is completed 
in the short space of ten days, and in the warmer States a 
second brood is raised. When the nest is approached, the 
parents dart around the intruder, within a few inches of his 
face ; and the female, if the young are out, often resumes her 
