376 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
“When on the wing it either darts about like a ray of 
feathered light, or else, poised before a deep-throated 
flower, remains apparently motionless, though its wings 
vibrate with the mechanical hum of a fly-wheel of perfect 
workmanship. 
“Tn spite of the fact that Father Humming-bird takes 
himself to parts unknown and leaves his mate to tend both 
eggs and birds, the mother is neither put out nor dis- 
couraged, and makes a model parent, who gathers and 
swallows the food for her tiny offspring and then, by a 
pumping process called regurgitation, brings it up and, tak- 
ing no chances of spilling a drop, literally rams it into 
the little throat! This bird is to me the greatest mystery 
of all. It comes and it goes, but how does it endure the 
stress of weather and travel? Many a moth outspans it 
in breadth of wings. If the flight of the Wild Goose is 
wonderful in its courage, what of the Humming-bird ? 
Is Puck of Pook’s Hill still alive, and has he feathered 
‘playfellows ? 
THE HUMMING-BIRD 
Is it a monster bee, 
Or is it a midget bird, 
Or yet an air-born mystery 
That now yon marigold has stirred, 
And now on vocal wing 
To a neighbour bloom has whirred 
In an aéry ecstasy, in a passion of pilfering ? 
Ah! ’tis the Humming-bird, 
Rich-coated one, 
Ruby-throated one, 
That is not chosen for song, 
aE 
