110 THE ''BIRD OF THE MUSICAL WING:' 



lost it then, and the luck of finding it so easily 

 could not fall to me twice, — I rushed to the 

 house to share my enthusiasm with a sympa- 

 thizer. 



My lady ruby-throat was a canny bird; she 

 had selected her position with judgment. The 

 silver poj^lar of her choice was covered with 

 knobs so exactly copied by the nest that no 

 one would have suspected it of being anything 

 different. It was on a dead branch, so that 

 foliage could not trouble her, while leafy twigs 

 grew near enough for protection. No large 

 limb afforded rest for a human foe, and it was 

 at the neck-breaking height of twenty feet from 

 the ground. Neck-breaking indeed I found it, 

 after a trial of twenty minutes' duration, which, 

 judging from my sensations, might have been 

 a century. 



But whether my head ever recovered its nat- 

 ural pose or not, I was haj^py ; for I saw the 

 hummingbird shaping her snug domicile to her 

 tidy form, turning around and around in it, 

 pressing with breast and bend of the wing, as I 

 was certain, from the similarity of her attitude 

 and motions to those of a robin I had closely 

 watched at the same work. During the time 

 I watched her she made ten trips between the 

 poplar and the vine, and at every visit worked 

 at shaping the nest and adjusting the outside 



