26 



TRAVELS ABOUT HOME 



Just at this point I take occasion to introduce a picture, 

 madelater in the season, of a Hummer poised beforea flower. 

 It serves very well to represent the appearance of Mr. Bur- 

 roughs' bird while visiting his honeysuckles, gathering food 

 for her young. It will be observed that the filmy halo, con- 

 stituting the wings of the Hummer in flight, does not appear 

 in this picture; nevertheless the exposure was made, if my 

 focal-plane shutter scale does not prevaricate, in less than 

 an eight-hundredth part of a second. 



" Paused before a flower " 



On one occasion, we observed another Hummer in the 

 vicinity ; the bird flew directly up to the one on the nest, and 

 evidently looked her straight in the eyes, but for so small a 

 fragment of time that we do not know whether it was male 

 or female. At any rate, the stranger seemed to be quite fa- 

 miliar with the air-line to the nest, though, as Mr. Bur- 

 roughs said, it is possible that Hummers may have an eye 

 for Hummers' nests. 



