122 A WIDOW AND TWINS. 



liam Brewster, 1 would be continued after 

 the nestlings were fully grown. On the 

 14th I wrote in my journal: "The method 

 of feeding remains unchanged, and, as it 

 seems, is likely to remain so to the end. It 

 must save the mother much labor in going 

 and coming, and perhaps renders the cooper- 

 ation of the male parent unnecessary. " This 

 prediction was fulfilled, but with a qualifica- 

 tion to be hereafter specified. 



Every morning, now, I went to the apple- 

 tree uncertain whether the nest would not 

 be found empty. According to Audubon, 

 Nuttall, Mr. Burroughs, and Mrs. Treat, 

 young humming-birds stay in the nest only 

 seven days. Mr. Brewster, in his notes 

 already cited, says that the birds on which 

 his observations were made in the garden 

 of Mr. E. S. Hoar, in Concord were 

 hatched on the 4th of July, 2 and forsook 

 the est on the 18th. My birds were al- 



1 The Auk, vol. vii. p. 206. 



2 But Mr. Hoar, from whom Mr. Brewster had his 

 dates, informs me that the time of hatching was not 

 certainly known ; and from Mr. Brewster's statement 

 ahout the size of the nestlings, I cannot doubt that they 

 had been out of the shell some days longer than Mr. 

 Hoar then supposed. 



