140 



THE OOLOQI8T 



these sparkling gems of bird life, pois- 

 ing above the great tree-trumpet, hang- 

 ing beneath the tube-cactus bells, flitt- 

 ing across the lilacs, and even chas- 

 ing the butterflies and bumblebees out 

 of the garden, these glowing jewels 

 easily . became the most entertaining 

 and elusively interesting objects of 

 that fairy-land of carefully husbanded 

 natural beauty. 



When I arrived in Berkeley last 

 Sunday morning, my flrst trip was to 

 the botanical gardens. Yes, they were 

 there; the same birds — sure, I know 

 my friends — and they were so glad to 

 see me. The familiar greeting and 

 the smile of recognition of the hotel 

 clerk, they added to my pleasure — they 

 swelled my egotism — but there was a 

 tinge of the sordid, there was a 

 graphone ring to the "Glad to see 

 you" and the smile was set in plaster- 

 paris; but here were Iny old friends, 

 flitting their pleasure, trilling their 

 joy and glowing their rapture as a 

 coal is fanned into flame by the wind. 



Two kinds of Hummingbirds are 

 found in these ga'rdens, the Anna and 

 the Allen. It is of the latter that I 

 will write. Mr. T. S. Papastavro told 

 me that there were young birds in 

 the gardens but our search on that 

 day was unsuccessful, however, he 

 showed me a deserted nest — a tiny 

 doll-house affair, carefully woven from 

 plant flbres, hairs and milkweed down, 

 and we saw many of the adults busily 

 about their work. This morning, July 

 2, I was standing beside the yellow 

 Spanish broom watching the various 

 gyrations of the Hummingbirds, when 

 a rather lonesome call attracted my 

 attention. I soon located a Humming- 

 bird with feathers slightly ruffled. It 

 was among some dead branches that 

 protruded from the clump of tropical 

 blue-bells (Tochroma tubulosa) but it 

 was very nervous and kept changing 

 from one branch to another. It's 



"s-s-s-s-oit" was answered from the 

 sage. 



The answer was a high-pitched 

 "s-s-s-chick" but the bird that was 

 making the atiswer seemed in no 

 hurry to leave her work of mincing 

 among the purple plantain-like blos- 

 soms of the sage. (How can a Hum- 

 mingbird get anything from the blos- 

 soms of broad-leaved sage, Salvia In- 

 volucrata?) Then she took a turn at 

 the red-rabbit sage, Gra'hmi, mean- 

 while the calls were being answered 

 more promptly. Then I noted that 

 the bird on the dead limb would oc- 

 casionally thrust cut its tongue and 

 even open its mouth in an expectant 

 manner. 



The calls and answers ceased with 

 a "zit" and the eld bird made a slight 

 circle and then dashed at the young 

 one in a manner that seemed flerce; 

 the little one — better not say little one 

 for they were about of equal size — 

 opened its mouth and stretched its 

 head forward. With a dash the old bird 

 thrust her beak down the youngster's 

 throat and gave two or three hasty 

 twists, — a*nd the feeding was over. I 

 do not think that it took a half minute. 

 The young bird flew away satisfied 

 without making a sound while the old 

 bird flew back to the red-rabbit sage; 

 but she was cross with the bumble- 

 bees and took occasion to drive two 

 of them away from the flowers. 



Of course, I suppose that the old 

 bird regurgitated some of the nectar 

 that she had been sipping into the 

 crop of the young bird, but why did 

 not this young bird make some effort 

 to feed itself, especially since it was 

 about as large as its parent. I went 

 back to the nest to see if the young- 

 ster had returned but there were no 

 birds to be seen around there and the 

 nest was cold. This leads to the sup- 

 position that Hummingsbirds may feed 

 their young after they leave the nest, 



