HUMMERS AND CHIMNEY SWEEPS 295 



" These Hummingbirds live on honey and very small 

 insects, and dread the cold so that they spend the win- 

 ter southward from Florida. But as soon as real spring 

 warmth comes, they spread over the United States, east 

 of the plains, and north even to the Fur Countries. 

 They are the only kind found in the eastern half of 

 North America, though there are more than a dozen 

 other species in the West, most of them near the Mexi- 

 can borders of the United States. 



'^ Wlien the Hummers arrive here, early in May, Ave 

 see the brilliant males darting about — sometimes, I am 

 sorry to say, quarrelling with their rivals and giving 

 shrill cries like the squeaking of young mice. The 

 last of ]May the dainty nest is made of plant-down and 

 lichen scales. Then the male goes off by himself and 

 sulks. You may see him feeding, but he keeps away 

 from the nest — selfish bird that he is — until the little 

 ones are ready to fly. 



" Meanwhile the mother takes all the care and trouble 

 herself, feeding her little Hummers in a peculiar wa}'. 

 She swallows tiny insects, and when they have remained 

 a little while in lier crop she opens her beak, into which 

 the young bird puts its own and sucks the softened 

 food, as a baby does milk from its bottle." 



" I was wondering this very morning," said Joe, 

 "how the old bird was going to feed her young ones 

 when those two eggs hatched, without any mate to 

 help her. Fm real glad you came along to explain it, 

 sir. Somehow the reasons lots of folk give for things 

 aren't reasonable at all." 



"Now, children," said the Doctor, "write the Hum- 

 mingbird table before the twilight comes on." 



