114 A WIDOW AND TWINS. 
naked, except for a line of grayish down 
along the middle of the back. 
Meanwhile, I had been returning with 
interest the visits of the bird to our honey- 
suckle, and by this time had fairly worn a 
path to a certain point in the wall, where, 
comfortably seated in the shade of the hum- 
mer’s own tree, and armed with opera-glass 
and notebook, I spent some hours daily in 
playing the spy upon her motherly doings. 
For a widow with a house and family 
upon her hands, she took life easily; at fre- 
quent intervals she absented herself alto- 
gether, and even when at home she spent 
no small share of the time in flitting about 
among the branches of the tree. On such 
occasions, I often saw her hover against the 
bole or a patch of leaves, or before a piece 
of caterpillar or spider web, making quick 
thrusts with her bill, evidently after bits of 
something to eat. On quitting the nest, she 
commonly perched upon one or another of a 
certain set of dead twigs in different parts 
of the tree, and at once shook out her feath- 
ers and spread her tail, displaying its hand- 
some white markings, indicative of her sex. 
This was the beginning of a leisurely toilet 
