Hummingbird Eccentricities 



By MARY PIERSON ALLEN. Hackettstown, N.J. 



ON the last da}- of May, 1908, I began to watch a Hummingbird's nest 

 which had been discovered on a maple tree along the main street of our 

 town. The first egg was laid on June 3, and the other one on the second 

 or third day after. I had understood that the period of incubation was about 

 two weeks, and did not look in the nest again until the i8th, when the second 

 egg was not yet two weeks old, and behold, no eggs appeared. I was told that 

 the nest had been looked at on the 14th, and no eggs were visible then. It would 

 appear, therefore, that the birds had hatched only a tritie over a week after the 

 second egg was laid. I could only guess at the presence of the little birds at first, 

 for the nest was rather inaccessible, but soon the tiny bills began to show when 

 the mother came with food. There seemed no danger that they would sufifer 

 from indigestion or gout, for they were fed very, very seldom. The male, as usual, 

 gave no help to his mate, but she seemed equal to the increasing cares as her 

 little ones grew to lusty birds. 



When about three weeks old, one bird left the nest, sitting for hours on 

 nearby twigs. For some time the mother fed both of her little ones, then deserted 

 the one which was still in the nest. She may have come to grief, but I might be 

 more inclined to be charitable had not the older bird left also. 



From about two o'clock in the afternoon on the day when the first one left 

 the nest, they were never seen again, and, after the deserted baby had cried 



RUBY-THROATED HU M MIXGBI RD'S XEST AND EGGS 



for about twenty-four hours, he got out of the nest and soon fluttered to the ground. 

 We offered him sweetened water in a spoon and he drank greedily. He was 

 passed over to me and I took him home. His daytime cage was the parlor, where 

 he sat by the window on a bit of stick held by a monkey-wrench, or flew about 

 the room at will. At night I put his perch in a round food-screen and placed him 



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