oes

 

 

 

a

 

 

 

ENT ROD UOT ION.

XXIV

who has lived in the country and paid any attention to natural history, that does not recollect that of the

s) with its beauti 2 S 5 as he ever ceased to wonder at the
Hedge-Accentor (Accentor modularis ) with its beautiful blue eggs; or he
>

‘ 4 , e a chitectu 1S

indeed among the most interesting of the many singular features in the economy of birds. And how truly
c 5 t @ Ss

wonderful are some of the nests of the Humming-Birds! In form and size they vary as much as the different

structure of the birds would lead us to expect, and a similar difference occurs in the situations in which

Some of these cradles are not larger than the half of a walnut-shell, and these coracle-

they are placed. |
The members of the genus 7rochilus and

shaped structure are among the neatest and most beautiful. Een ee
Be ae hi a] structi he lavish decoration
nd the greatest Ingenuity, not so much in their construction as in t

their allies expe ;
of their outer walls; with the utmost taste do these birds instinctively fasten thereon beautiful pieces of flat
lichen, the larger pieces in the middle, and the smaller on the part attached to the branch. . It is : question
among ornithologists whether these adornments are fixed on by a glutinous secretion from the bird, or by
the invisible webs of some of the smaller kinds of spiders ; my own belief is, that the latter is the means
employed. Now and then a pretty feather is intertwined or fastened to the outer side, the stem being
always so placed that the feather stands out beyond the surface. These little cup-shaped nests are frequently
placed on the bifurcation of the horizontal part of a branch near the ground, and at other times higher up
towards the summit. Quite the reverse of this kind of nest are those built by the Phaéthornithes: these
latter are generally very frail structures, woven round and attached to the side of a drooping palm-leaf, very
frequently overhanging water. Such a nest is figured in my plate of P. Hurynome. Another, of a similar
form, but of different materials, is figured in the same volume, in the plate illustrative of P. Hremita, with

two young ones therein.

Other Humming-Birds suspend their nests to the sides of rocks. These are hammock-shaped in form,
and are most ingeniously attached to the face of the rock by means of spiders’ webs and the cottony materials
of which they are sometimes built. Those made by the Oreotrochili are very large, and composed of wool,
llama hair, moss, and feathers; at the top of this great mass, of nearly the size of a child’s head, is a little
cup-shaped depression in which the eggs are deposited. Respecting the nest made by the Oreotrochilus
Pichincha, my friend Professor Jameson, of Quito, writes, “On the first of the present month (November
1858), I visited the snowy mountain of Antisana in company with the American Minister. In the celebrated
Farm-house (about 13,500 feet above the sea) I found in one of the lower or ground-apartments, unprovided
with a door, several nests of Oreotrochilus Pichincha, one of which was attached to a straw rope suspended
from the roof. Iam quite certain as to the identity of the species, having shot one of the birds. The
rest will be sent to you in my next parcel.” See the figure of this nest given by Dr. Sclater in the

‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ 1860, p. 80.

Some of the Humming-Birds, and perhaps this very species, are said to suspend their great nests by the

middle from the fine hanging root of a tree, ora tendril; and should the nest, which is of a curved form

and built of any coarse materials at hand, prove to be heavier on one side than the other, the higher side is
5

weighted with a small stone or square piece of earth until an equilibrium is established and the eggs pre-
If such powers, so nearly approaching to that of reason,

of my readers, I can assure them th

vented from rolling out. shanidbe doctecy oes

at one or more of these loaded nests are contained in the Loddigesian

Collection ; and one is at this moment before me, an examination of which will satisfy the most sceptical of

Occasionally the old nests are repaired or
more years in succession. Many other

the truth of this stateme i
S statement. built over the old one, two, three, or

instances might be given to show that the nidification of the

 

 

 
  
 
   
    
   
   
 
 
 
 
  
   
    
  
    
  
  
  
   
  
   
    
    
   
    
    

les
| { te
At

wil

renal
ay site

dna

le
Brey
Nato
ithe
which

aren 0