UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES AFIELD 107 



effective I put the hummingbird into an empty 

 nest in the conservatory, giving the little creature 

 a drink of sweetened water. It drank as if it 

 were famished, running its long, threadlike tongue 

 over the bowl of the spoon, searching for particles 

 of sugar. We then surrounded it with the bloom 

 of honeysuckle and trumpet creeper. When the 

 flowers were held within its reach it fed on the 

 pollen and never refused the water. 



I confidently expected that it would be dead the 

 following morning, but instead it had folded its 

 wings, which drooped the day before, and was 

 clinging to one of the coarser twigs of the nest with 

 its feet. At these signs of improvement I began 

 to work in earnest. I removed the nest to a cool, 

 shady place, and added to the bird's diet hard 

 boiled egg, thinned almost to liquid and sweetened. 

 By the third morning it could move its body and 

 use its feet, for it had climbed to the edge of the 

 nest. Both of us rejoiced, seeing that our bird 

 was going to recover. I blame myself for the 

 accident which followed. From the fact that the 

 bird was strong enough to climb to the edge of 

 the nest, I should have been warned that it would 

 attempt to fly and placed it in a lower position. 

 Shortly afterward, it tried to take wing, falling 

 from the shelf four or five feet to the cement 

 floor of the conservatory, so aggravating its original 

 injury that it soon died. 



Perhaps my most unique experience with a bird 



