THE MALE RUBY-THROAT. 



" Your fathers, where are they ? " ZECHABIAH i. 5. 



WHILE keeping daily watch upon a nest 

 of our common humming-bird, in the sum- 

 mer of 1890, I was struck with the persis- 

 tent absence of the head of the family. As 

 week after week elapsed, this feature of the 

 case excited more and more remark, and I 

 turned to my out-of-door journal for such 

 meagre notes as it contained of a similar 

 nest found five years before. From these it 

 appeared that at that time, also, the father 

 bird was missing. Could such truancy be 

 habitual with the male ruby -throat? I had 

 never supposed that any of our land birds 

 were given to behaving in this ill-mannered, 

 unnatural way, and the matter seemed to 

 call for investigation. 



My first resort was, of course, to books. 

 The language of Wilson and Audubon is 

 somewhat ambiguous, but may fairly be 

 taken as implying the male bird's presence 



