ICXD Ticelve Months With 



It is a common misapprehension that our hum- 

 ming bird never alights, probably because it is 

 often confounded with the Sphinx moth, which 

 plays about the flowers in the evening. The mis- 

 take is not unnatural, and a correction is sometimes 

 received with incredulity. As a matter of fact, the 

 bird spends but a comparatively small part of its 

 time on the wing. Near our camp at Bailey Falls 

 a male humming bird perched day after day for 

 half an hour at a time upon a telephone wire. Evi- 

 dently there was a nest near by in which the little 

 outpost was interested, but we were unable to 

 locate the tiny thing in any of the neighboring 

 trees. It was doubtless there regardless of our 

 inability to find it. Because of its size, and the 

 fact that it is always saddled on a horizontal limb, 

 and covered with lichen and moss, it is very diffi- 

 cult indeed to discover, and except by the sharp- 

 est eyes will usually be mistaken for a knot on 

 the limb. 



Humming birds are curiously fearless, and have 

 been known to feed upon sugar held between the 

 lips, and to probe a flower held in the hand. Not 

 infrequently they fly into houses, manifesting the 

 smallest degree of suspicion. Their white eggs 

 which are about the size of a navy bean, are so 

 fragile that tgg collectors do not attempt to blow 

 them, as they do other eggs. 



With its metallic ruby- red throat, and its shining 

 green back, it more clearly suggests the tropics 

 than any of our birds. Indeed, it is the only one 



