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BIRDS OF AMERICA 



The season for Hummingbirds opened with 

 the locust blossoms next door, which were for 

 days a mass of bloom and buzzings of birds 

 and bees. But when the fragrant flowers began 

 to fall and the ground was white with them, one 

 bird settled herself on our Honeysuckle, and 

 there took her daily meals for a month. Being 

 not six feet from where I sat for hours every 

 day, I had the first good opportunity of my life 

 to learn the ways of one of these queer little 

 creatures in feathers. 



After searching and much overhauling of the 

 books, I made her out to be the female Broad- 

 tailed Hummingbird, who is somewhat larger 

 than the familiar Ruby-throat of the East. Her 

 mate, if she had one, never came to the vine; 

 but whether she drove him away and dis- 

 couraged him, or whether he had an independent 

 source of supply, I never knew. She was the 

 only one whose acquaintance I made, and in a 

 month's watching I came to know her pretty 

 well. 



In one way she differed strikingly from any 

 Hummingbird I have seen ; she alighted, and 

 rested frequently and for long periods. Droll 

 enough it looked to see such an atom, such a 

 mere pinch of feathers, conduct herself after the 

 fashion of a big bird ; to see her wipe that needle- 

 like beak, and dress those infinitesimal feathers, 

 combing out her head plumage with her minute 

 black claws, running the same useful append- 

 ages through her long, gauzy-looking wings, 

 and carefully removing the yellow pollen of the 

 honeysuckle blooms which stuck to her face and 

 throat. Her favorite perch was a tiny dead 

 twig on the lowest branch of a poplar tree, near 

 the honeysuckle. There she spent a long time 

 each day, sitting usually, though sometimes she 

 stood on her little wiry legs. 



But though my Hummingbird friend might sit 

 down, there was no repose about her ; she was 

 continually in motion. Her head turned from 

 side to side, as regularly, and apparently as 

 mechanically, as an elephant waves his great 

 head and trunk. Sometimes she turned her 

 attention to me, and leaned far over with her 

 large, dark eyes fixed upon me with interest and 

 curiosity. But never was there the least fear in 

 her bearing; she evidently considered herself 

 mistress of the place, and reproved me if I made 

 the slightest movement, or spoke too much to a 

 neighbor. H she happened to be engaged among 

 her honev-pots when a movement was made, 

 she instantly jerked herself back a foot or more 

 from the vine, and stood upon nothing, as it 



were, motionless, except the wings, while she 

 looked into the cause of the disturbance, and 

 often expressed her disapproval of our behavior 

 in squawky cries. 



The toilet of this liliputian in feathers, per- 

 formed on her chosen twig as it often was, 

 interested me greatly. As carefully as though 

 she were a foot or two, instead of an inch or 

 two. long, did she clean and put in order every 

 plume on her little body, and the work of polish- 

 ing her beak was the great performance of the 

 day. This member was plainly her pride and 

 her joy; every part of it, down to the very tip. 

 was scraped and rubbed by her claws, with the 

 leg thrown over the wing, exactly as big birds do. 

 It was astonishing to see what she could do with 

 her leg. I have even seen her pause in mid-air 

 and thrust one over her vibrating wing to 

 scratch her head. 



Then, when the pretty creature was all in 

 beautiful order, her emerald-green back and 

 white breast immaculate, when she had shaken 

 herself out, and darted out and drawn back 

 many times her long bristle-like tongue, she 

 would sometimes hover along before the tips of 

 the fence-stakes, which were like laths, held an 

 inch apart by wires, — collecting, I suppose, the 

 tiny spiders which were to be found there. She 

 always returned to the honeysuckle, however, to 

 finish her repast, opening and closing her tail as 

 one flirts a fan. while the breeze made by her 

 wings agitated the leaves for two feet around 

 her. Should a blossom just ready to fall come 

 off on her beak like a coral case, as it some- 

 times did, she was indignant indeed ; she jerked 

 herself back and flung it off with an air that was 

 comical to see. 



When the hot wind blew, the little creature 

 seemed to feel the discomfort that bigger ones 

 did : she sat with open beak as though panting 

 for breath : she flew around with legs hanging, 

 and even alighted on a convenient leaf or cluster 

 of flowers, while she rifled a blossom, standing 

 with sturdy little legs far apart, while stretching 

 up to reach the bloom she desired. 



Two statements of the books were not true in 

 the case of this bird : she did not sit on a twig 

 upright like an Owl or a Hawk, but held her 

 body exactly as does a Robin or Sparrow ; and 

 she did flv backward and sideways, as well as 

 forward. 



Toward the end of June my tiny visitor began 

 to make longer intervals between her calls, and 

 when she did appear she was always in too great 

 haste to stop; she passed rapidly over half a 



