140 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



shotgun, only instead of belching forth murderous 

 shot, it sucks in the sweets of the flowers. This ex- 

 traordinary little double-tubed tongue is guided into 

 the honeysuckle's long throat by well-developed, 

 strong muscles ; and while the bee is vainly bustling 

 about, plunging his head " up to his ears " in the 

 aggravating blossom all to no purpose, our little 

 hummer makes one lightinglike dart at it and 

 secures the honey with apparently no efliort what- 

 ever. 



I find the humming bird is very fond of nastur- 

 tiums, petunias, and delphiniums, and notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that the milkweed blossom is cloyingly 

 sweet, he passes it by, where it stands just beside the 

 road near my garden fence, and makes a bee line for 

 my brilliant, red King of Tom Thumbs and my ruby- 

 spotted yellow Ladybird nasturtiums. Perhaps he 

 does not fancy the esthetic, lilac-drab colors of the 

 ubiquitous milkweed. 



The little fellow has mere apologies for legs ; 

 they are cjuite useless for locomotion, but are admi- 

 rably adapted for a tiny perch. He can support him- 

 self firmly on a wire scarcely thicker than a hairpin. 

 He stands on the wire screening which supports my 

 sweet peas — very light wire it is, too — and preens his 

 feathers with every appearance of security and con- 

 tentment. While he is at the flowers feeding he 



