48 



THE OOLOGIST 



Days With the Ruby,throated Hummer 



By S. S. Dickey, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

 A bird's nest. Mark it well. Within, 



without. 

 No tool had he that wrought ; no knife 



to cut. 

 No nail to fix, no bodkin to insert, 

 No glue to join. His little beak was 



all. 

 And yet how neatly finished! What 



nice hand, 

 With every implement and means of 



art, 

 And twenty years apprenticeship to 



boot, 

 Could make one such another? 



— Hurdis. 

 While I was quite a little boy I 

 went one evening to visit at the home 

 of my parents' friends and well re- 

 member a discovery which one of the 

 older folks made when we were sitting 

 on the porch; this person found a 

 dead male Ruby-throated Humming- 

 bird caught in a tangle of vines that 

 adorned the border of the veranda. 

 My love for birds caused me to take 

 this hummer, while no one was watch- 

 ing, and run to my home with it. 



A few years later while I was still 

 a mere boy the gorgeous little hum- 

 mers visited the touch-me-nots in a 

 neighbor's womans flower garden, and 

 to me thed seemed like wonders from 

 an enchanting and unknown world. So 

 a boy friend and I prepared a net and 

 placed it on the end of a long pole, 

 determined to capture one of the 

 sprightly creatures. But try as we 

 did, day after day, we could not catch 

 the bird in our net. 



Then a new scheme was decided up- 

 on: a gum-shooter was made and a 

 pocket full of small white beans se- 

 cured. By waiting for the bird to 

 alight on a clothes line wire and then 

 sending a shower of beans at him we 

 eventually stunned one of the little 

 fellows and bore it home in triumph. 



Perhaps the natural daintiness and 

 beauty of the Ruby-throat made it an 

 endearing bird with me, but I am in- 

 clined to believe that those early day 

 associations with the species helped 

 profoundly in making me greatly ad- 

 mire this glittering dwarf of birdom. 



Therefore, as nesting seasons ar- 

 rived, I always hoped intensely to find 

 the home of a Hummingbird. But 

 years rolled by and not a nest was 

 seen, until, perchance, late May of 

 1906. On Memorial day of that year 

 I went to a deep wooded gully in 

 search of varius birds' nests and 

 happened near a group of sugar 

 maples which stood in the denser por- 

 tion of the woods. A drink from a 

 spring, and a rest, resulted in my 

 hearing the sound of a Ruby-throat as 

 it darted about in humming flight. A 

 careful watchfulness revealed the bird 

 and its nest. The domicil was built 

 well out on a horizontal branch of 

 one of the sugar maples and was about 

 thirty feet from the ground. In cut- 

 ting the limb off with my ax I jolted 

 it and spilled the two white eggs which 

 rested so prettily within the little 

 home. 



Thus as the season of 1907 came 

 round a special effort was made to 

 find another hummer's nest. On May 

 18, as I passed along a woodland road 

 which wound about a hillside, a hum- 

 mer buzzed past and lit in a tree be- 

 side me. Then she flew to a smajl 

 dead branch at the lower side of a pin 

 oak tree where she wove some build- 

 ing material about the roughened 

 bark. Although the nest was visited 

 soon again it was not until June 4 

 that the set was completed and the 

 treasure secured. Swinging in a 

 strained position, with saw in hand 

 and much perspiration wetting my 

 brow, I collected the nest while the 

 little owner darted back and forth in 

 chirping dire distress. 



