8 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



the only comparison I can make would be the rapid opening and shutting of 

 a tiny sandal wood fan. He had a hard time getting his share of the food, 

 in spite of my moral support. I told him those bottles were out for the benefit 

 of all hummingbirds, regardless of age, sex or previous condition of servi- 

 tude. One night I thought he had heeded my counsel for he chased a female 

 away, and came back to his bottle. I started to commend him for holding 

 his own, but the sentence was never finished, for she came back striking him 

 so hard he left for the night. 



August was a strenuous month for all concerned. As there are only 

 two in the family, our sugar ration would not supply all needs. Mother and 

 I decided we were responsible for the birds and would feed them first. There 

 are advantages in living in a hamlet, the neighbors all knew our troubles. 

 One keeps bees; she brought some unsalable honey. Another had some 

 maple syrup meet with an accident; she brouglit that. The grocer had a 

 sack of sugar damaged in transit, and he brought that. So not a little 

 stomach went empty and we kept our acquaintance with the sugar-bowl. 



I made up the food in a four ounce bottle; many days I had to make 

 twice in order to keep the small feeding bottles all going. I had eight out 

 and found a hungry hummingbird could clean out a bottle two and one-fourth 

 inches long. Sometimes a perching bird would run out its tongue an inch or 

 more, anticipating that the food would be "licking good," I suppose. They 

 fed often, all day, but from five o'clock in the evening until dark, reading or 

 writing on our porch was not to be thought of, because of feeding and fight- 

 ing. One evening I had the bird-glass leveled on a perching female, when 

 another came near. Instead of striking as usual, she sat still but raised 

 the feathers the whole length of her back exactly as a dog raises his hair. 

 I never saw such concentrated wrath in my life; one just naturally dodged! 



They were so accustomed to me they hardly noticed me, except to scold 

 me if I let a bottle get empty. They would come so near the vibration of 

 their wings would ruffle my hair. Early in the season the ants got into the 

 bottles, and I would have to change the location. The birds would go to 

 every place where a feeder had been, then look around until they found 

 the new location. When so many came, I did not stop to make holders, 

 but took strings and tied the bottles up. After that they would investigate 

 any bit of rag or string within sight. Would a flower-fed bird do that? 



The 9th of September the last bird ate a hearty breakfast, then started 

 her airplane southward. 



Two experiences of the season stand out in memory. One May morning 

 I woke up at sunrise and looked down from a window on our lilac bush, 

 an enormous white one. The top was a mass of blossoms with just a show- 

 ing of light green leaves. Over this a male hummingbird darted in and out, 

 often facing the east so the jewel in his throat caught the sunlight. A hum- 

 mingbird, lilacs and sunrise can make a "mountain moment." 



A few feet from our porch is the trunk of a cherry tree, left for old 

 association's sake. We planted an ivy to run over it, making it ornamental 

 to us, and useful to the birds. The stump is about ten feet high, and at the 

 top are some shoots about a foot long. One mid-afternoon in July, Ephraim 

 perched on the tip of one of those twigs. He sat there motionless, facing 

 the west, with his head slightly raised, showing his throat in full. The 

 strong sunlight turned that twig into bronze-gold, and Ephraim into a mag- 

 nificent jewel, the whole suggesting a royal scepter fit only for the King 

 of Kings and Lord of Lords. 



