ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 25 



the top. There he was soon joined by his astounded mother and 

 my last glimpse of the two showed them perched contentedly in 

 the tree top and although Anna was certainly getting a thorough 

 shaking the unpleasantness of this was doubtless offset by the 

 ,good meal which he was receiving. 



Mary Elizabeth Osborne, Evanston 



To a Butcher Bird 



Come closer, let me see your glossy coat — 



You needn't fear a farmer boy like me, 



For truly I enjoy your company — 



Come, let me hear the song that's in your throat. 



Pick up the fattest grubs my plow throws out, 



And carry to that hungry brood I found 



In yonder nest, high off the ground, 



With feathers lined within, and twigs without. 



Your acts of cruelty I long have known ; 



I've seen the meadow-mice, and sparrows too, 



Which you impale on barb or thorny snag. 



And yet, that hunter with the blood-stained bag 



Who passed a while ago — he's worse than you. 



You kill to live — he kills for sport alone. 



Wayne Gard 



The Chicago Evening Post — Pillar to Post 



A Humming Bird s Nest 



From the Decatur Junior Herald, under the date of July 17th, 

 we copy a letter concerning a humming bird : 



I read a few weeks ago in The Herald of some of the Decatur 

 people going out to see mocking birds. I wonder how many of 

 the bird lovers have seen a humming bird's nest. I was lucky 

 enough to find one this week. While digging bait as a lure for 

 some of our finny friends in Kaskaskia river, I heard the peculiar 

 whir of the humming bird's wings and stopped to watch. 



She was just building, carrying tiny bits of cottonwood "cot- 

 ton" and placing it to form a small round nest. She would fairly 

 hammer it in place with her slender beak. This was on a Mon- 

 day. On Saturday the nest was completed and the tiny mother 

 was sitting on two eggs about the size of a hat pin head. The 

 completed nest is about the size of the cup of a bur acorn, and 

 it is so cleverly camouflaged with bits of green leaves as to be 

 nearly invisible, even though it is placed on an almost bare por- 

 tion of a maple limb. There the mother bird sits, perched on 

 top of the tiny nest swaying with every breath of air, a sight that 

 is worth going to see. Though I am 54 years old and a life long 

 lover of birds this is my first view of a humming bird's home. 



William Bullock, Route 2 



