386



Miss Althea R. Sheeman



summer after summer began to be felt at the beginning of the fourth

season. On May 26 of that year the first humming bird appeared

on the place. The next day the flowerless bottle No. 4 was put out,

and in a few hours a bird was drinking from it. For the next three

weeks she was seen drinking from this bottle on every day except

two, but not in the middle of the day ; then for two weeks she was

missed, returning again on the 1st of July.


The history of the fifth season was similar. Humming birds

having been seen on May 22, bottle No. 4 was staked out and filled

for a few days. No bird coming to drink, the bottle filling had been

discontinued, when on June 6 a humming bird on suspending wings

was seen searching this bottle. Not finding syrup in it she flew to the

spot always occupied by the flowerpot holding the artificial flowers

when they were in place. Over this vacant spot she hovered an

instant before flying away. On a few other June days a bird of this

species was present and on the 17th one was seen drinking, but her

steady summer boarding did not begin until July 9. In the sixth

spring the species arrived earlier than usual. No bottles were out

on May 7 when a humming bird was seen hovering over the cus¬

tomary place for the artificial flowers. As quickly as possible these

flowers were put out, but before they could be filled the bird was

thrusting her bill into the tiger lily. She came to drink on most of

the days thereafter until June 9, also June 14, 15, and 24, and on

July 1 and 2 ; but it was not until July 16 that she came for constant

drinking.


These dry and dull details have been given in full because two

theories were based on them. That the birds of former years have

returned to be fed seems unquestionable from their searching at once

flowerless bottle No. 4 and from the other evidences offered. That

the birds came in May and at intervals in June and July before

becoming steady boarders about the middle of July, seems to indicate

that they nested two or three miles away, too far for daily trips after

incubation began. The supposition that these nestings were in the

woods is founded on the fact that in leaving the birds flew in that

direction, also because they were never found about the trees of the

four farmyards that intervene between our place and the woods.

That in two summers a mother rubythroat returned with her daugh-



