THE HUMMING BIRDS OF CHOCORUA. 593 



As the season of 1893 wore on, the number of humming birds 

 at this orchard diminished. Late in July I saw as many as 

 five birds near the trees at one moment, three of them being 

 regular attendants and two interlopers. During the next four 

 weeks I was absent, but on my return I found that only the 

 female using the eastern tree remained, and that she was seldom 

 annoyed by visitors. The trees which had been used by the 

 other two birds had run dry, and the sapsuckers as well as their 

 uninvited guests had abandoned them. Of the identity of the 

 remaining humming bird there could be no question ; her ways 

 were too strongly marked to be mistaken, as, for example, her in- 

 variable habit of alighting upon one slightly sloping trunk when 

 she drank from its drills. When September drew near I watched 

 closely to ascertain the date of the little lady's departure, but day 

 after day came and went without my missing her. At last, on 

 September 1st, it seemed to me that she had gone. I had waited 

 ten or fifteen minutes by the trees and she had not come, though 

 the sapsuckers were busy at the drills in their accustomed places. 

 Before finally giving her up I thought that I would count a hun- 

 dred slowly and see if this form of incantation might not draw 

 her to her trees. When I reached "ninety-nine" and no bird 

 came, I concluded that the exact date of her migration had been 

 found, but as I said " one hundred " there was a faint hum in the 

 still air, and the dainty dipper appeared with her usual sprightli- 

 ness. On the 6th, after several light frosts had laid their chilly 

 touch upon the Chocorua country, I felt confident that the tiny 

 creature must have sought a kinder climate. Again, however, 

 she surprised me by appearing, after a long delay, as bright as 

 ever. She hummed at her regular drinking places, but seemed to 

 find little moisture in the wasting fountains. The trees were los- 

 ing vitality and becoming dry. Then she sought the dead twigs 

 at the tops of last year's trees and flitted back and forth among 

 them, sunning herself. No perch pleased her long, and when she 

 wearied of them all she darted back to the drills for a brief per- 

 functory sip of the slow-moving sap. Her restlessness seemed 

 born of the season, and a symptom of that fever of migration 

 which was making all bird life throb more and more quickly. 



Although on September 25th, when I made my last visit of the 

 year to the orchard, I found two sapsuckers still at work at the 

 drills, no humming bird was with them. How long after the 6th 

 the vigorous little female remained I do not know, for I was un- 

 able to watch the trees during the middle of the month. 



Although at Chocorua I never have found a sapsuckers' or- 

 chard without its attendant humming birds, I am by no means sure 

 that in other localities where both birds occur the same interest- 

 ing community of interests is to be detected. During a brief 



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