SONOLESS BIMDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 243 



that the male bird assists the female in the care of the youno- ; 

 but ill my experience the male is always absent, and the 

 female alone provides for the young feniily. The feedino- of 

 such a family is a most inter- 

 esting proceeding, as the birds 

 are fed b}^ regurgitation until 

 the very day before they leave 

 the nest. The following re- 

 marks on the appearance of 

 the young birds and their 

 feeding are taken from my 

 notes of July, 1905 : — 



IIow i^erfect are these little 

 fledgeling wanderers, in their tiny, 

 moss-covered q\x^, shaded from the 

 .southern sun rays by the green 

 leaves which overhang and sm*- 

 round the nest. Their dainty new feathers, of but a few days' growth, 

 have been touched by the tender mother's breast alone or the gentle dew 

 of heaven. Their inscrutable, brilliant dark eyes flash quick glances 

 all around ; no motion escapes them. One leans forward from the 

 nest and attempts to pick a moving aphis from the limb. Their whole 

 bodies throb quickly with the fast-surging tide of hot life pulsing 

 through their veins. Now, with a boom like a great bee, the mother 

 suddenly appears out of the air as she darts almost in my face. I am 

 standing within two feet of the nest, and she hangs on buzzing wing, 

 inspecting me, then perches on a limb just above my head, then on 

 another a few feet away, her head raised and neck craned to its fullest 

 extent. Buzzing aljout from pla(>e to place, she inspects me, until, 

 satisfied, slie finally alights on the edge of the nest at the usual place, 

 where her constant coming has detached a piece of lichen and trodden 

 down the fabric of the edge. The little birds raise themselves with flut- 

 tering wings, and the parent, rising to her full height, turns her bill 

 almost directly downward, pushes it into the open beak of the young, 

 and ])y working her gullet and throat discharges the food through the 

 long, hollow bill as from a squirt gun. 



Fig. 101. — Mother bird feeding young, 

 oue-li:ilf natural size. 



Two days later, on the morning of the 11th, when Mr. 

 Brewster w^ent to the nest, one young bird had gone, Init the 

 other sat on the edge. As he came up, it "flew like a bullet" 

 •up to the roof of the barn, a few rods away. 



Undoubtedly the Hummingliirds live to some extent on 



