A Hummingbird Story 



275 



exceptional nest, or inclement weather made more brooding necessary with 

 less time to search for food, thus retarding the growth of the young, is an 

 interesting question; or possibly the earlier authorities may have been mistaken 

 when they said the young leave in 'ten days.' 



At any rate, on July 10, they were still in the nest and were taking turns 

 standing on the edge and trying out their 

 wings. The next day they seemed as large 

 as their mother, and their plump little 

 bodies protruded over the flattened edge of 

 the nest and they tried their wings more 

 often. 



On the morning of July 12, twenty-eight 

 days after hatching, one of the young had 

 left the nest and the observer took up a 

 position to watch the second bird's home- 

 leaving. 



Soon the mother bird came with food, 

 and, after feeding, tried to coax the young 

 one away; failing in this, she took the bill 

 of the little one in her own bill and three 

 times tried to pull it from the nest, but 

 without success ; finally she flew away. 

 Soon after the young one raised itself in the 

 nest and flew like a bolt to what had been a 

 favorite perch of the mother on the rhodo- 

 dendron bush on the lawn. 



Mrs. Hummer was a much surprised bird when she returned and found 

 the nest empty, but she soon joined the young one and a moment more they 

 both disappeared, leaving an empty nest. 



YOUNG HUMMINGBIRDS OX THEIR 

 TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY IN THE 



XEST 



Mount Mazama Bird Notes 



By LESLIE L. HASKIN, Lebanon, Oregon 



THE subject of bird-life zones is one of absorbing interest. Just why the 

 difference of a scant 100 feet in height should appear to be an impassible 

 barrier to one variety, when 10,000 feet makes no apparent difference 

 to another, has always been a puzzle to me. We of the West, where a com- 

 paratively few miles often mark the difference between warm humid sea-level, 

 and perpetual snow-capped mountains, have an especially favorable oppor- 

 tunity for studying such matters, and it is a subject of never-failing interest 

 to the writer. 



Having these things in mind, when an opportunity presented itself of 



