ORNITHOLOGY 



227 



love call. The bird ruffles his feathers 

 much as a turkey does in strutting, 

 fills the neck pouches with air, lowers 

 his head and utters in rapid succes- 

 sion a series of loud hoots or grunts 

 that under favorable circumstances 

 may be heard for a distance of from 

 two to three miles. When the bird is 

 "hooting" he seems to be oblivious to 

 sound or movement. He may be ap- 

 proached in almost plain sight at the 

 time, to within a few feet, provided 

 the observer is silent and motionless 

 between the notes. The sounds are 

 strongest and loudest at first, descend- 

 ing in volume and increasing in speed 

 to the last. They are generally six in 

 number. The bird seems to have a 

 ventriloquial power, when he discovers 

 an onlooker. I have searched for an 

 hour for one that was perched on a fir 

 at a distance of fifty or one hundred 

 feet from the ground. At first the 

 sound came steadily from a clump of 

 closely woven branches, and I seemed 

 to locate it to within a few feet. As I 

 circled around to get a new view the 

 sound would suddenly seem to come 

 In mi another spot, perhaps from 

 another tree. Then I knew that he 

 knew that I was looking for him. 

 I have worked around and around the 

 tree to be compelled at last to leave 

 without a sight of the bird. 



The young are hatched about the 

 first of June. At that time they are 

 low in the valleys among the thick al- 

 ders and berry patches. As the sea- 

 son progresses they go higher on the 

 mountains. About August they will 

 be found near the timber line and in 

 the hanging valleys between the 

 higher peaks. There they feed on the 

 berries until the encroaching snows 

 cover the ridges. Then they retire f c 

 the heavy evergreen timber and wait 

 for spring. 



The Humming Bird's Nest. 



BY W. BUSH, BADLANDS, CALIFORNIA. 



The humming birds of California, 

 the land of flowers, fruits and birds, 

 build their tiny nests in all kinds of 

 places — on the topmost branches of 

 the Eucalyptus one hundred feet or 

 more from the ground, where, with a 

 good glass, you can see them swaying 

 hack and forth in the wind ; or in the 

 vines that climb over the porch ; or on 

 the open branches of a low tree, plain- 



ly in sight when you rind them and 

 yet, on account of the "law of protec- 

 tive coloration," so disguised that you 

 may easily pass within a few feet and 

 not notice the beautiful little object 

 that is so cunningly glued and woven 

 perhaps to a single twig. The nest 

 in the illustration is located in this 

 way on a small three-year-old plum 

 tree. It is about four feet from the 

 ground, a beautiful little cup made of 



NEST AND YOUNG OF HUMMING BIRD. 



moss and material like cobweb inter- 

 laced and woven together in exqui- 

 site fashion. The bark of the tree, 

 the material of which the nest is made 

 and the young birds are each greyish 

 in color and so much alike in appear- 

 ance as to be almost indistinguishable 

 to the casual observer, but upon going 

 a little too close you may suddenly 

 hear a sharp whirring noise and, as 

 you pause in wonder, you will see 

 directly in front and but a few feet 

 distant, a bright little object with 

 bronze plumage and flaming breast, the 

 piercing eyes flashing as the bird darts 

 backward and forward, the little gossa- 

 mer wings quivering and vibrating so 

 rapidly as to make them appear almost 

 stationary. You are trespassing and 

 the mother humming bird is express- 

 ing her indignation. The nest, a work 

 of art, is about one and one-half in- 

 ches in diameter. The two young 

 birds are almost ready to fly. They 

 completely rill the nest as they snuggle 

 down, with their eyes closed as if 

 asleep and their two little bills stick- 

 ing up like a jack-in-the-box. 



