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Mr. Althea R. Sherman,



to the effect that humming birds show a preference for red flowers.

In further proof of the fallacy of this statement the third flower,

shaped like the nasturtium, was painted green, and was placed in a

bed of green plants which at that time bore no blossoms. It was

pronounced by other people to be “exactly the color of the surround¬

ing foliage.” It was staked out and filled on August 5, 1909, when

no humming bird was in sight, but in about 10 minutes some of the

species had come, and 15 minutes later one was drinking from the

bottle in this green flower.


It was then suggested by my sister, Dr. E. Amelia Sherman,

that I try a bottle without an encircling flower. The problem of

supporting a bottle without an artificial flower w r as solved in this way :

The bottle was incased in a piece of unbleached muslin, enough of

the cloth extending beyond the bottom of the bottle to allow the tack¬

ing of it to a stick. The support of the bottle in a position slightly

up from the horizontal was furnished by a piece of leather with a

hole in it through which the bottle was thrust, and the leather was

then nailed to the stick. In this arrangement the most vivid

imagination can find no suggestion of a flower. It was put out on

August 8, and in 43 minutes a humming bird was drinking from it.

The bottle was then moved from proximity to the artificial nasturtium

and tiger lily, and a humming bird found it in its new location in 32

minutes. This place about 8 feet from the artificial flowers has been

its position in the four succeeding summers. In July, 1911, two

more flowerless bottles were added to the group, making six .in all.

For convenience in referring to them the flowerless bottles will be

called by numbers 4. 5, and 6.


Bottle No. 4 had not been long in use before it was noted that

the humming birds showed preference for it, while the nasturtium

was sought least of all. This seemed due to the deep insetting of the

bottle in the flower, which caused the birds to brush against its lower

leaves, an unpleasant experience when sticky sirup adhered to it.

For this reason the filling of the nasturtium was sometimes omitted

for several days, whereupon the humming birds soon ceased to visit

it, although drinking regularly from the tiger lily a few inches away.

When the filling was resumed the birds returned to it as they had

been accustomed.



