A ME RICA N ORNITHOL OGY. 



27 



not consist principally of honey, 

 as is generally supposed, but 

 mostly of spiders, flies and small 

 bugs. With wings vibrating with 

 a rapidity that renders them in- 

 visible, the bird hovers over each 

 successive blossom, and with its 

 slender bill and sensitive tongue, 

 captures any insects that may be 

 concealed therein. 



PossibU- during your rambles in 

 the woods, you may hear a squeaky 

 chattering, and a soimd not unlike 

 that of a bumble-bee buzzing; if 

 you do, you can be sure,, that you 

 are very near the home of the bird 

 we are studying, and that he is 

 trying his best to drive you away. 

 If you are keen-sighted and can 

 follow him as he passes in his 

 bullet-like flight, )ou will soon see 

 him alight on a twig. The nest is 

 only a few feet from him, you may 

 be certain, and if you search care- 

 fully you will find it perched on a 

 horizontal limb and so covered 

 with moss that it is hardly dis- 

 tinguishable from the bough on 

 which it is placed. 



What a misfortune it often 

 proves to these birds that, after 

 having built their nests so cun- 

 ningly, they should thus disclose 

 their situation, when if they were 

 to remain quiet they would very 

 rarely be discovered. 



But notwithstanding the fact 

 that they frequently bring ruin to 

 their own homes, 1 do not think 

 they have decreased in numbers in 

 the past few years. We certainly 

 hope they never will, as to lose the 



humming-bird would be to lose one 

 of nature's brightest jewels. 



THE HUMMING-BIRD. 

 A flash of harmless lightning, 



A mist of rainbow dyes, 

 The burnished sunbeams brightening. 



From flower to flower he flies: 



While wakes the nodding blossom, 



But just too late to see 

 What lip hath touched her bosom 



And drained her nectary. 



JOHN B. TABB. 



The pertinacity and lack of fear 

 of the Northern Shrike are well 

 shown by the following: As 1 was 

 sitting at my desk I heard an un- 

 usual chattering among the Eng- 

 lish sparrows outside. I looked 

 out and saw perhaps twenty-five 

 or thirty of them in a circle about 

 one of their number which lay on 

 the ground in the grasp of a 

 shrike or "Butcher-bird." They 

 were all screaming with all their 

 power, and trying to frighten him 

 away. A man passing by stepped 

 into the street and picked up the 

 shrike and brought him into the 

 office. We were obliged to pry 

 his bill apart to make him release 

 the sparrow, which by this time 

 was dead. We liberated the 

 shrike, and he is probably busy 

 now satisfying his appetite with 

 other sparrows. 



Earl S. Baxter shot a guillemot 

 at Colebrook River, Litchfield 

 county, Conn., recently. The 

 bird is very rare in this region, 

 being an arctic bird, and, so far 

 as known, this is the first one 

 killed in that section. The bird is 

 jet black on his back and has a 

 black head, but otherwise is pure 

 white. 



