ISO NATURE IN A CITY YARD 



say and pumps at their honey with many 

 a pull and hitch as he hovers above them 

 on seolian wing. He has eyes only for his 

 supper, and has passed within half a foot 

 of our hands and has sucked honey so close 

 under our eyes that we had to move back 

 to see him. Could any one abuse with 

 capture a confidence like that ? This busy 

 reveler in the dark is so like a humming- 

 bird in size, mode of flight, and way of life, 

 that when I first saw him against the sky 

 I was sure that he wore feathers. 



There are other visitors to the same 

 weed : trig spiders, miniature tigers who 

 flatten themselves against the leaves and 

 spring out on flies bigger than themselves; 

 butterflies of the day, fair as blossoms; and 

 two fat and loathly green grubs tobacco- 

 worms they are called so like rolled leaves 

 that they run a chance of being handled 

 by looking like that. One of these grubs 

 I took indoors and stabled on a stra- 

 monium leaf, covering him with a glass 

 dish, slightly raised, to admit air. He was 

 a tight sticker, and on every attempt to 

 move him uttered an angry objection 



