AROUND OUR RANCH-HOUSE. 



89 



about the flowers in front of the windows so 

 much that when the front door was left open 

 they often came into the room. 



In an oak behind the barn I found a humming- 

 bird's nest, and, yielding to temptation, took out 

 the eggs to look at them. In putting them back 

 one slipped and dropped on the hard ground, 

 cracking the delicate pink shell as it fell. The 

 egg was nearly ready to hatch, and I felt as guilty 

 as if having killed a hummingbird. 



When in the hammock under the oak one day, 

 I saw a pair of the odd-looking Arizona hooded 

 orioles busily going and coming to a drooping 

 branch on the edge of 

 the tree. They had 

 a great deal to talk 

 about as they went 

 and came, and when 

 they had gone I 

 found, to my great 

 satisfaction, that they 

 had begun a nest. 

 They often use the 

 gray Spanish moss, 

 but here had found a 

 good substitute in the 

 orange-colored para- 

 sitic vine of the mead- 

 ows known among Baltimore Oriole - Eastern. 

 the people of the Val- (One half natural size.) 



Arizona Hooded Oriole. 

 (One half natural size.) 



