Bird- Nesting with Burroughs 



91 



Just at this point I take occasion to introduce a picture of a 

 Hummer poised before a flower made later in the season, but which 

 serves very well to represent the appearance of Mr. Burroughs' bird 

 while visiting his honeysuckles gathering food for her young. It will be 

 observed that the filmy halo, constituting the wings of the Hummer in 

 flight, does not appear in this picture, and nevertheless it was made, if 

 my focal-plane shutter scale does not prevaricate, in less than a five- 

 hundredth part of a second. 



On one occasion we observed another Hummer in the vicinity, a 

 bird that flew directly up to the one on the nest, and evidently looked 



HLMMiiR liKOODlMJ VOUNU 



her straight in the eyes, but for so small a fragment of time that we 

 do not know whether it was a male or female. At an\ rate, the bin! 

 seemed to be (juite familiar with the air-line to the nest, though, as 

 Mr. Hurroughs saiil. it is possible that Humnn-rs nia\- have an eye for 

 Hummers" nests. 



Fully as unapproachable was a Flicker, who, w lu-n we tappeil gentU 

 at the base of lu-r home in an old chcrrv stuli, left the exit above 

 with a precipitation clef\ing the speeil of a lens shutter. \\ hile techni- 

 cally a failure, the picture of her hasty departure, nevertheless, forms an 

 interesting srud\- in the use of the wing in fliglit. It will In- observed 

 that, altliougli a third of the bird still rein.iins in the holi-. the wing 



