1869. ] 
ordinary potluck; but that it alone 
should thrive, devouring, as it were, all 
the rest, is one of those freaks of Nature 
in which she would seem to discourage 
the homely virtues of prudence and 
honesty. Weeds and parasites have 
the odds greatly against them, yet they 
wage a very successful war nevertheless. 
The woods hold not such another 
gem as the nest of the humming-bird. 
The finding of one is an event to date 
from. Itis the next best thing to find- 
ing an eagle’s nest. I have met with 
but two, both by chance. One was 
placed on the horizontal branch of a 
chestnut-tree, with a solitary green leaf, 
forming a complete canopy, about an 
inch and 2 nalf above it. The repeated 
spiteful dartings of the bird past my 
ears, as I stood under the tree, caused 
me to suspect that I was intruding up- 
on some one’s privacy ; and following it 
with my eye, I soon saw the nest, which 
was in process of construction. Adopt- 
ing my usual tactics of secreting my- 
self near by, I had the satisfaction of 
seeing the tiny artist at work. It was 
the female unassisted by her mate. At 
intervals of two or three minutes, she 
would appear with a small tuft of some 
cottony substance in her beak, dart a 
few times through and around the tree, 
and alighting quickly in the nest, ar- 
range the material she had brought, 
using her breast as the model. 
The other nest I discovered in a 
dense forest on the side of a mountain. 
The sitting bird was disturbed as I 
passed beneath her. The whirring of 
her wings arrested my attention, when, 
after a short pause, I had the good 
luck to see, through an opening in the 
leaves, the bird return to her nest, 
which appeared like a mere wart or ex- 
crescence on a small branch. The 
humming-bird, unlike all others, does 
not alight upon the nest, but flies into 
it. She enters it as quick as a flash, 
but as light as any feather. Two eggs 
are the complement. They are perfectly 
white, and so frail that only a woman’s 
fingers may touch them. Incubation 
lasts about ten days. In a week the 
young have flown. 
Bird’s-Nests. 
799 
The only nest like the humming- 
bird’s, and comparable to it in neat- 
ness and symmetry, is that of the blue- 
gray gnatcatcher. This is often saddled 
upon the limb in the same manner, 
though it is generally more or less 
pendent ; it is deep and soft, composed 
mostly of some vegetable down covered 
all over with delicate tree-lichens, and, 
except that it is much larger, appears 
almost identical with the nest of the 
humming-bird. 
But the nest of nests, the ideal nest, 
after we have left the deep woods, is 
unquestionably that of the Baltimore 
oriole. It is the only perfectly pensile 
nest we have. The nest of the orchard 
oriole is indeed mainly so, but this 
bird generally builds lower and shal- 
lower, more after the manner of the 
vireos. 
The Baltimore oriole loves to attach 
its nest to the swaying branches of the 
tallest elms, making no attempt at con- 
cealment, but satisfied if the position be 
high and the branch pendent. This 
nest would seem to cost more time and 
skill than any other bird structure. A 
peculiar flax-like substance seems to be 
always sought after and always found. 
The nest when completed assumes the 
form of a large, suspended, gourd- 
shaped drop. The walls are thin but 
firm, and proof against the most driving 
rain. The mouth is hemmed or over- 
handed with horse-hair, and the sides 
are usually sewed through and through 
with the same. 
Not particular as to the matter of 
secrecy, the bird is not particular as to 
material, so that it be of the nature 
of strings or threads. A lady friend 
once told me that, while working by 
an open window, one of these birds 
approached during her momentary ab- 
sence, and, seizing a skein of some kind 
of thread or yarn, made off with it to its 
half-finished nest. But the perverse 
yarn caught fast in the branches, and, 
in the bird’s efforts to extricate it, got 
hopelessly tangled. She tugged away 
at it all day, but was finally obliged to 
content herself with a few detached 
portions. The fluttering strings were 
