148 THE MALE RUBY-THROAT. 



with all speed, pausing under such scattered 

 trees as had been left standing in that quar- 

 ter. Nothing was to be found, and on my 

 return there sat the male, provokingly, at 

 the top of the apple-tree, whence he soon 

 returned to the ash. A warbler entered the 

 tree, and after a while ventured upon the 

 branch where the hummer was sitting. In- 

 stead of driving her away he took wing 

 himself, and paid another visit to the apple- 

 tree, a visit of perhaps five minutes, at 

 the end of which he went back to the ash. 

 Then two kingbirds happened to alight in 

 the apple-tree. At once the hummer came 

 dashing over and ordered them off, and in 

 his excitement dropped for a moment into 

 the leafy top of a birch sapling, a most 

 unnatural proceeding, after which he re- 

 sumed his station in the ash. What could 

 I make of all this? Apparently he claimed 

 the ownership of both trees, and yet his nest 

 was in neither ! He sat motionless for five 

 minutes at a time upon certain dead twigs 

 of the ash, precisely as our female was ac- 

 customed to sit in her apple-tree. For at 

 least seven days he had been thus occupied. 

 Where was his mate? On the edge of the 



