Hummingbird WESTERN BIRDS 



A good deal of time was spent in moving his wings 

 vigorously in an effort to fly. He knew no fear and 

 sat freely upon my finger, buzzing his tiny wings, but 

 was unable to raise himself, although he got over a flat 

 surface by this rapid wing movement. 



When I offered him sweetened water from a teaspoon, 

 he ran out his tiny white needle-like tongue and drank 

 it greedily. When a nasturtium was placed before him, 

 he reached forward and ran his tongue over it. Hum- 

 mingbird fashion, but its contents were weak compared to 

 the sweetened water which he soon learned to prefer. 

 When he was hungry he made a high-pitched peep. 



One day he was sitting on the back of a chair before 

 a window, when a female Allen flew to the net and tried 

 to get in. When I made an opening for her she buzzed 

 in and flew about the baby, then became alarmed and 

 flew to the window between the glass and net, where we 

 had hard work to rescue her. She was badly scared and 

 lay, as dead, in my hand. I placed the young bird on 

 the window ledge with the rigid female beside him and 

 closed the glass, leaving the opening so that the old bird 

 could get out when she felt able. The nestling paid no 

 attention to her and she lay as I placed her with eyes 

 open and body palpitating. Presently, I gently pulled 

 the cloth on which she was resting, when like a flash, 

 she was up and out at the opening, and we saw or heard 

 her no more. 



If any one has been inclined to think that because 

 they are small, Hummingbirds are stupid little things, 

 he is greatly mistaken, for in reality they are ex- 

 tremely bright. Little Buzz learned to know his spoon 

 and to reach for it when hungry. When we had him 

 five days he was still unable to fly and we were obliged 

 to take him to the mainland — three hours' ride on the 

 steamer. For this trip I fixed up a bottle of sweetened 

 water, knowing that it would be hard to \ise the spoon. 



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