A SUMMER AT HOME. 213 



constructed the nest, receiving no assistance from the 

 male bird, who did not show himself from the day the 

 nest was commenced to that when the young birds left 

 it. And also, that during violent thunder-showers the 

 parent bird did not sit upon her nest, and the unpro- 

 tected young escaped destruction by thrusting their 

 needle-like beaks through the sides of the nest, and 

 grasping the bottom with their long, sharp claws. 



On the contrary, I have never found a humming- 

 bird's nest where the female alone took care of the 

 eggs and young. The male bird was always about, and 

 ready to show tight, even when I came too near the 

 nest. 



If the nest usually is abandoned during storms, then 

 the "pinning on " of a leaf, as quoted above, is not so 

 marvellous. Few ornithologists, I imagine, however 

 watchful, are likely to see the occurrence repeated. 



July 6. — During the night there was a typical 

 shower, with the midsummer accompaniment of heavy 

 thunder and flashing lightning. The latter was very 

 sharp and blinding, and seemed to rattle among the 

 trees, some of which were struck. Such a storm, if any 

 such ever does, ought to have greatly disturbed the 

 birds, and ruined many a nest; but this morning I ex- 

 amined a considerable series, and found scarcely a trace 

 of injury, and no case of abandonment. Song-sparrow 

 nests on the ground were not flooded. The earth 

 about them, and the arrangement of their materials, 

 were such that the water flowed on each side, and left 

 the nest intact. Nests of the brown thrush, too, which 



