240 TEXAS AND ARIZONA 



Suddenly the verdin began sputtering to himself, 

 after his manner, a little way off. Quick as 

 thought the hummer cocked his head, waited an 

 instant as if to make sure he had heard correctly 

 (it seemed impossible, I suppose, after such a 

 drubbing), and then, like a bullet out of a gun, 

 flew at the persistent intruder. His spirit was 

 wonderful, and being roused to his work, he fin- 

 ished by descending at full speed upon a black 

 phosbe that just then blundered innocently along. 

 The big flycatcher, many times bigger than the 

 hummer, but so is a man many times bigger 

 than a rifle ball, did not stand upon the order 

 of his going, but went at once. I did not wonder. 

 The fellow might have driven me away, also, had 

 he taken it into his head to try. He was irre- 

 sistible. Talk of a strenuous life ! 



At another time he darted from his perch in 

 a quite unwonted direction, and flew on the line 

 to a palo-verde shrub off on the hillside. The 

 verdin was there, it turned out, down at the very 

 bottom of the bush, though to my senses he 

 had made no sign, and must be dislodged forth- 

 with. 



Why the hummer offered no objection to 

 the kinglet's presence is beyond my knowledge. 

 Perhaps he took into account the fact that the 

 kinglet was here only for the whiter ; for it was 



