How to Attract the Birds 



windy or rainy for the moths to fly. The coral 

 honeysuckle's nectar cannot easily be reached by 

 bees; its trumpets could not be seen after dark by the 

 moths ; moreover, it has no fragrance to guide them, 



but it pleases the ruby-throat 

 in every essential respect. 



What is the next flower 

 to spread his feast ? With a 

 broader and more northerly 

 range than the coral honey- 

 suckle's, the painted-cup or 

 Indian paint-brush scatters its 

 vivid scarlet tufts through the 

 fresh green grass on meadow 

 and prairie in May, its bloom- 

 ing season extending to July. 

 Usually the first humming- 

 bird of the season is seen 

 suspended as if by magic over 



these glowing flakes of fire. In this species not the 

 flowers themselves for they are greenish yellow- 

 but the floral bracts which enfold them are ver- 

 milion advertisements to catch the ruby-throat's eye. 

 Other members of the figwort family, to which the 

 painted-cup belongs, wear the bee's favourite colour 

 and have provided a landing place on their lower 

 lips for their benefactors ; but here, what would be 

 superfluous at the painted-cup's entrance, Nature has 

 eliminated. 



Closely following the painted-cup, and indeed 

 partly overlapping its season, comes the graceful, 

 swinging, rock-loving columbine. Inasmuch as 

 both these flowers rarely grow in the same 



