156 



Bird -Lore 



turtiuni into which a drop of honey had been placed, and nearly the 

 whole time the little bird was flying from one to the other, perching 

 on fingers or sipping from the flowers held in the hand or button- 

 hole, to the delight of everybody, none of the company having" ever 

 seen a live Hummingbird so close by. 



In the evening he went to roost high up on a chandelier, and in 

 trying to catch him with the net to put him in a safe cage for the 

 night, he fell like a dead bird to the carpet. I held him warm in 

 my hand, thinking that he was about to breathe his last, but anxious 

 to save the precious little life if possible, I very gently opened the 

 bill and inserted a pellet of crushed spiders' eggs as large as 

 a good-sized sweet pea, following it with a drop of water. He had 

 been feigning, probably, as they are known to do ; at any rate, in a 

 minute he was as bright and lively as ever. His room for the 



NEST AND EGGS OF HUMMINGBIRD SEEN FROM ABOVE 



Situated in an apple tree 8 feet from the ground 



Photographed from nature by E. G. Tabor, Meridian, N. Y., June 16. 1857 



night was a large insect cage of wire screen filled with convenient 

 twigs and a large bowl of flowers. At five in the morning I fed 

 him honey and young spiders, and again at six. At eight I had a 

 lecture, the subject of which happened to be the taming of wild birds 

 and attracting them about our homes. Removing all flowers from his 

 cage to let his appetite sharpen for the two intervening hours, I 

 set the cage on a table by my side on the lecture platform. I had 

 taken pains to have two fresh nasturtiums in my buttonhole, one 

 well loaded with honey, the other filled with the juices of crushed 

 spiders and spiders' eggs. On reaching the topic of approaching 

 birds in the right way, appealing to them along the lines of their 

 tastes and appetites, appealing to the "right end" of a bird, I had 

 only to open the door, give the familiar chirp, and the little charmer 

 was probing the flowers. Then, as if anxious to show off, he again 



