Nests and Eggs of Birds of The United States. Gentry Thomas George

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      The parents show the most intense affection for their progeny. Day after day they watch over their helpless infancy with a devotion somewhat akin to that which a human mother manifests toward her child. Their slightest desire is a law, which is obeyed with cheerfulness and alacrity. When food is in demand, they prove themselves to be willing providers, each parent vying with the other in patience and fidelity. While one is absent in quest of food, the other remains at home to protect them from danger, the labor being accomplished by turns. Earthworms, caterpillars, fresh-water larvæ, flies and mosquitoes constitute their earliest fare. But later, beetles, butterflies, and various kinds of fruits help to swell their hitherto very extensive dietary. When about fourteen days old, the young leave the nest, but are not yet prepared to earn their own living. This requires an additional period of twelve days. Brood-raising being over, both young and old continue in the old haunts, until near the time of departure, when they collect in small flocks, and take up their southward-bound journey.

      A typical nest of this species is somewhat irregular in shape, and rather coarsely and rudely built. It is composed of stubble and broad grasses variously intermingled, and lined with soft meadow grass. The dimensions vary according to locality. Several nests before us, from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the South and West, have an average external diameter of five inches, and a height of three. The cavities, however, are more uniform, and generally measure three inches in width, and one and a half in depth. But when a nest is built in a bush, the outer basketlike frame is carefully interwoven with, and strongly secured to, adjacent twigs. Though somewhat rudely put together, it is nevertheless firmly and compactly woven. The outer framework is usually made of rushes, strong leaves of the iris, and, in some instances, of an additional article apparently similar to mud. Within is packed a mass of coarse materials, over which is placed a thick lining of grasses and sedges. These nests, in the matter of size, differ from the former chiefly in the particulars of length and thickness. The internal dimensions offer no very striking exceptions.

      The nest represented in the Plate is three-fourths of the natural size, and was obtained by the writer in the summer of 1879, by purchase, from Mr. Alexander M. Reynolds, of Philadelphia. It was built in a field of grass, many of the stalks of which being wrought in its composition. In figure it resembles an inverted cone, and is beautifully, symmetrically and compactly put together. The outside is formed of grasses and rushes, very neatly and intricately interwoven, and shows here and there a head of dried pappus plucked from some species of hawkweed. The inside is lined with sedges and fine blades of grass. As shown in the drawing, the nest occupies a rather conspicuous position. This was not the case in its natural location. Being found in the centre of a large field, it is at once evident that the authors had spared no pains to make the concealment as complete as possible. In height, this fabric measures nine inches. Its external diameters above, below, and in the middle, are, respectively, six, two, and four and a half inches. The width of the cavity is three inches, and the depth three.

      The eggs are oval in contour, of a light bluish ground-color, and are marbled, blotched and streaked with light and dark purple, chiefly about the greater extremity. In size, they vary considerably; the average length of a large number of specimens from different regions being 1.01 inches, and breadth .76. In the Middle, New England and Western sections of our country, this species is single-brooded; but further south, three, and even a larger number of broods, are annually raised.

      Plate VII. – TROCHILUS COLUBRIS, Linaeus. – Ruby-throated Humming-bird

      The Ruby-throated Humming Bird is found throughout Eastern North America as far west as the Missouri Valley, and thence northward to the 57th parallel. It breeds from Florida and Western Texas to the plains of the Saskatchewan and the head-waters of the Elk River.

      From its winter-quarters in Guatemala and Mexico, it takes up its line of flight when the season has fairly opened, reaching our southern frontiers late in March. Thence it slowly advances northward in its migration, arriving in Upper Georgia about the 10th of April; in Pennsylvania, from the last of April to the Middle of May, and in its northern habitats, during the last of May, or the beginning of June.

      For a brief season subsequent to arrival the sexes remain apart, and seem only intent upon the procurement of food. This is especially the case in the Middle Atlantic States where their habits have been very closely observed. Here they make their appearance with the blossoms of the horse-chestnut and tulip-tree, and may be seen at all hours of the day, in fair weather, delving into flowers for honeyed sweets, or probing their bosoms for the caitiffs within. In feeding, their movements resemble those of the hawk-moths. Gracefully they suspend themselves in mid-air before the opening flowers, ravish their hidden treasures, and, with almost the speed of an arrow let fly from a bended bow by some skilled archer, are off in an instant, possibly to more delectable vineyards, or to some shady nook for rest and contemplation. For agility and fleetness of motion the little Ruby-throat is certainly unsurpassed by any of our smaller feathered species.

      But things cannot long remain in this state. Their favorite flowers must soon wither and decay, and with their timely death, must inevitably come the disappearance of an easy and luxurious means of subsistence. The tooth of appetite will then grow dull, and other thoughts and scenes invite their attention. Experience has taught us that the falling of the blossoms of the horse-chestnut and tulip-tree foretell the time of mating.

      This important business is performed without the least semblance of show. The sexes tired, as it were, of the riotous and luxurious lives they have been leading, come together by mutual agreement, and enter into matrimonial relations. This being accomplished, they separate for a brief period, and each proceeds to scour the country for miles around in quest of a suitable tree in which to locate. When one is selected by either bird, the other is summoned to the spot to talk over, in true bird-language, the merits thereof. Should the parties differ as to the advantageousness of the site, no quarrelling or bickering is indulged in, but, in the most friendly manner, they separate, and renew the search until one is found which gives satisfaction.

      Having decided upon a locality, the birds are now ready to commence building. This takes place between the first and the tenth of June in the Middle States, about the tenth in New England, and as early as the fourth in the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States. The situations chosen vary considerably. Sometimes high, open woods are selected; again, low, dense thickets; but, more frequently, an orchard close-by a human dwelling, or an isolated tree in the midst of a lawn. Occasionally, the birds have been known to build in trees along travel-worn thoroughfares. A case in point came under our notice in the summer of 1872. While returning home one day, we were surprised to see a female fly from her nest in a maple-bough, only a few feet above our head. The nest was immediately examined, and found to contain a pair of young birds. Not wishing to disturb the happiness of the family, we permitted it to remain intact. On visiting the spot a week or ten days afterward, it was found to be empty, the birds either having matured and flown away, or else had been killed by some ruthless invader. For several successive years a nest was to be seen on the same tree and branch, but whether the work of the same pair, we are unable to say.

      That this species is not very particular as to the kind of tree in which it builds, has been our experience, and we do not find any recorded instance of disagreement. Dr. Brewer mentions but one kind of tree in which it builds – the apple. In addition to it, we have found nests saddled upon the pear, red-oak, white-oak, willow, red maple, sugar maple, cottonwood, beech, pine, etc. In fine, almost any tree will answer this purpose, as the generality of arboreous growths are more or less favorable to the development of lichens. Several anomalous positions, as on pine-cones and warty excrescences, have frequently been met with in our ornithological rambles.

      The nest is the result of the joint labor of both birds, who work with unwearied perseverance and diligence until it is completed; the male furnishing the raw material to be manipulated and adjusted by his zealous partner. Occasionally, the latter assists her "liege lord" in collecting and bringing in his burden.

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