SONGLESS BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 243 
that the male bird assists the female in the care of the young ; 
but in my experience the male is always absent, and the 
female alone provides for the young family. The feeding of 
such a family is a most inter- 
esting proceeding, as the birds 
are fed by regurgitation until 
the very day before they leave 
the nest. The following re- 
marks on the appearance of 
the young birds and their 
feeding are taken from my 
notes of July, 1905 :— 
itd 
How perfect are these little 
fledgeling wanderers, in their tiny, 
moss-covered cup, shaded from the 
southern sun rays by the green 
leaves which overhang and sur- 
round the nest. Their dainty new feathers, of but a few days’ growth, 
have been touched by the tender mother’s breast alone or the gentle dew 
of heaven. Their inscrutable, brilliant dark eyes flash quick glances 
all around; no motion escapes them. One leans forward from the 
nest and attempts to pick a moving aphis from the limb. Their whole 
bodies throb quickly with the fast-surging tide of hot life pulsing 
through their veins. Now, with a boom like a great bee, the mother 
suddenly appears out of the air as she darts almost in my face. Iam 
standing within two feet of the nest, and she hangs on buzzing wing, 
inspecting me, then perches on u limb just above my head, then on 
another a few feet away, her head raised and neck craned to its fullest 
extent. Buzzing about from place to place, she inspects me, until, 
satisfied, she finally alights on the edge of the nest at the usual place, 
where her constant coming has detached a piece of lichen and trodden 
down the fabric of the edge. The little birds raise themselves with flut- 
tering wings, and the parent, rising to her full height, turns her bill 
almost directly downward, pushes it into the open beak of the young, 
and by working her gullet and throat discharges the food through the 
long, hollow bill as from a squirt gun. 
Fig. 101.— Mother bird feeding young, 
one-half natural size. 
Two days later, on the morning of the 11th, when Mr. 
Brewster went to the nest, one young bird had gone, but the 
other sat on the edge. As he came up, it “flew like a bullet” 
up to the roof of the barn, a few rods away. 
Undoubtedly the Hummingbirds live to some extent on 
