EUBY-THEOATED HUMMINGBIRD 3 



becomes so great that her nerves quite get the 

 better of her. One mother bird Mr. Torrey was 

 watching at such a time went so far as to leave 

 her tree and fly tempestuously at an innocent 

 Sparrow, driving him well out of the tomato 

 patch. 



When her young were fairly launched upon the 

 world, her happiness was shown by a most re- 

 markable exhibition of 'maternal ecstasy.' She 

 came intending to feed a nestling perched on a 

 branch, but then, as a human mother unexpect- 

 edly stops to caress her little one, she opened her 

 wings and circled around her little bird's head. 

 Lighting beside him, her feelings again overcame 

 her, and she rose and flew around him once more. 

 As Mr. Torrey writes, " It was a beautiful act, . . . 

 beautiful beyond the power of any words of mine 

 to set forth ; . . . the sight repaid all my watch- 

 ings thrice over, and even now I feel my heart 

 growing warm at the recollection of it." " Strange 

 thoughtlessness, is it not," he asks pertinently, 

 " which allows mothers capable of such passionate 

 devotion tiny, defenseless things to be slaugh- 

 tered by the million for the enhancement of 

 woman's charms ! " 



While the mother is so devotedly caring for her 

 little ones, what is the father doing ? That seems 

 to be the question. Mr. Torrey has been look- 

 ing up the matter, and in ' The Footpath Way ' 

 tells us that out of fifty nests of which he has had 



