The Hummingbird at Home 5 



At first the little capsules had such a wonderfully 

 delicate flesh-tint of pink. Then, one morning, I stood 

 over the nest like Thomas of old. Some one had replaced 

 the eggs with two black bugs! It might have been a 

 miracle. There was a tiny knob on the end of each bug 

 that looked as if it might be the beginning of a bill. Each 

 little creature resembled a black bean more than a bird, 

 for each possessed a light streak of brown along the mid- 

 dle of the back. They couldn't be beans, for they were 

 pulsing with life in a lumpy sort of way. I went fre- 

 quently to look at them. In a few days the nestlings 

 began to fork out all over with tiny black horns, until 

 they would have looked like prickly pears had they been 

 the right color. At the next stage each tiny horn began 

 to blossom out into a spray of brown down, the yellow at 

 one end grew into a bill, the black skin cracked a trifle 

 and showed two eyes. It was hard to see just how those 

 black bugs could turn to birds, but day after day the mira- 

 cle worked till I really saw two young hummingbirds. 



When they left the nest, the midgets took up their 

 abode in our back yard. The yard was crossed by three 

 clothes-lines for perches, and the large apple tree in the 

 corner gave abundant shade for the hottest days. In the 

 centre was a round bed of geraniums, and along the fence 

 were gladioli and nasturtiums. The youngsters simply 

 sucked all the honey out of every flower in the yard. 

 Every morning I saw them going the rounds and collect- 

 ing tribute from the hearts of the new blossoms. As I 

 came and went about the house, they soon became accus- 

 tomed to the presence of a person, and when I filled some 

 flowers with sweet water, it did not take them long to 



