SOME BIRDS 



seemed to be fully thirty feet high, and as much 

 in diameter across the top, the birds circling 

 about in a dark, compact mass. 



Just as you must have a chimney if you would 

 have the swift, and angle-worms if you want 

 robins, so, too, the flower-garden must come 

 before the Humming Bird will visit you. We 

 had had our flowers for a year or two before I 

 noticed the first humming-bird, and it was for 

 some time a rare event to see them ; but the 

 increase of late has been very marked, and last 

 season the terrace was simply alive with these 

 beautiful little fairy-like birds. You could 

 not walk along the head of the upper terrace 

 on a bright day in July or August without 

 seeing a dozen or more of them at a time. 

 In August it was curious to see them perching 

 on the trees on the edge of the terrace, pruning 

 their feathers, and then darting oflF like a flash 

 of light. Doubtless these were young birds, 

 who had not yet attained their full powers of 

 flight. Some young nephews of mine caught 

 a pair of these birds, and kept them in their 

 rooms for several days, the birds seemingly 

 quite contented with their surroundings, feed- 

 ing freely out of a vial of sugar and water, 

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