186 A-BIRDING ON A BRONCO. 



tervals of feeding depend on the worm supply 

 rather than the dietary principles of the parents. 



Gretchen's mother was bending over her wash- 

 tubs out under the oaks, and I called her atten- 

 tion to the pretty birds brooding in her door-yard, 

 telling her that they were good friends of hers, 

 eating up the worms that destroyed her flowers 

 and vegetables. "So?" she asked, but seemed 

 ready to let the subject drop there, and hurried 

 back to her work. A poor widow with a large 

 family of children and a ranch to look after can 

 rind little time, even in beautiful California, to 

 enjoy what Nature places in her door-yard. 



Three weeks later Gretchen came riding down 

 to tell me that there were eggs in the tree again. 

 The bluebird bid fair to be as hardworked as the 

 widow, at that rate, I thought, when I went up to 

 look at them. The children showed me the nest 

 of a goldfinch, near the ground, in one of the 

 little orange-trees in front of the house. They 

 also pointed out linnets' nests in the vines by the 

 door, and the oldest child said eagerly, " When 

 we came home from school there was a humming- 

 bird in the window, and we caught it," adding, " I 

 think it must have been a father humming-bird." 

 "Why?" I asked, " was it pretty ? " "Yes, it 

 just shined," she exclaimed enthusiastically. 



When the family were at home, their puppy 

 would bark at us furiously, and follow us about 

 suspiciously, but when he had been left on the 



