424 LAND BIRDS 
nest he would allow me to come very close to him, so 
that I could almost touch him while he sat in unwinking 
silence like a bud on the moss rose, or a dead bird on a 
hat. The tiny green mother was no less courageous, and 
brooded unmoved while I watched not five feet away. 
When the little ones appeared they were very like all 
the small hummingbirds I had ever seen — naked except. 
for thin down on back, about three-fourths of an inch 
long and with very short bills. I think our ruby-throat 
of the East could have mistaken them for her own but 
431. ANNA HUMMINGBIRD. 
“* Upon a wire clothes-line, and squeaking right merrily.”’ 
for the slightly lighter gray hue of the skin. They were 
fed each hour, and oftener, by regurgitation ; the food 
given was small gnats and spiders. 
It was astonishing how those babies grew! In two 
days they had doubled, and in four days trebled their 
original size. Dark, hair-like down began to show on 
crown, spine, and shoulders. In twelve days feathers 
were beginning to replace the down. In twenty-one 
days, just as the wing-stretching and restless wriggling 
threatened to upset the wee cradle, they popped out of 
the nest one day into the rosebush, sat there an hour 
