HUMMING BIRD. 
457 
vular favourites. When these plants are set before a 
window where humming birds abound, they will 
surely pay them a visit, and swarm about the flowers, 
examining every one by thrusting their bills into it ; 
and if by chance some of their brethren have been 
beforehand and robbed them of the expected sweets, 
they will pluck the flower from the stalk with a pre- 
cipitation that marks their rage. 
Mr. Pennant observes, that most violent passions 
animate at times their little bodies. They have 
often dreadful contests, when numbers happen to 
dispute possession of the same flower. They will 
tilt against one another with great fury, as if they 
meant to transfix their antagonists with their long 
bills. During the fight they frequently pursue the 
conquered into the apartments of those houses 
whose windows are left open, take a turn round the 
room, as flies do in England, and then suddenly 
regain the open air. They are not afraid of man- 
kind, unless they are approached very near indeed, 
when they dart away with the rapidity of lightning. 
The nest of this bird is of a piece with the archi- 
tect ; it is an elegant little cup of an hemispherical 
shape, about an inch in diameter, and half an inch 
deep. It is constructed by the female, and formed 
on the outside with lichen, or moss, amidst the 
thickest foliage of a tree, where, from its diminu- 
tive size, it is not easily discovered. The nest is 
lined on the inside with the down or gossamer col- 
lected from the great yellow mullein; but when this 
cannot be obtained, cotton, flax, or other soft ma- 
