424 



LAND BIRDS 



nest he would allow me to come very close to him, so 

 that I could almost touch him while he sat in unwinking 

 silence like a bud on the moss rose, or a dead bird on a 

 hat. The tiny green mother was no less courageous, and 

 brooded unmoved while I watched not five feet away. 

 When the little ones appeared they were very like all 

 the small hummingbirds I had ever seen — naked except 

 for thin down on back, about three-fourths of an inch 

 long and with very short bills. I think our ruby-throat 

 of the East could have mistaken them for her own but 



431. Anna Hpmmingbikd. 

 " Upon,a wire clothes-line, and squeaking right merrily" 



for the slightly lighter gray hue of the skin. They were 

 fed each hour, and oftener, by regurgitation ; the food 

 given was small gnats and spiders. 



It was astonishing how those babies grew ! In two 

 days they had doubled, and in four days trebled their 

 original size. Dark, hair-like down began to show on 

 crown, spine, and shoulders. In twelve days feathers 

 were beginning to replace the down. In twenty-one 

 days, just as the wing-stretching and restless wriggling 

 threatened to upset the wee cradle, they popped out of 

 the nest one day into the rosebush, sat there an hour 



