218 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



some bare twig, and there he rests and presses those already 

 smooth plumules with the long, slender bodkin. Now, just 

 now, he darts into my room, coquets with my basket of 

 flowers, "a kiss, a touch, and then away." I heard the 

 whirr of those gauzy wings ; it was not to the flowers alone 

 he told his story. 



9. I have heard of a lady who reared these little birds 

 from the nest ; they would suck honey from her lips, and 

 fly in and out of her chamber. Only think of seeing these 

 callow fledglings ! It is as if the winged thought could be 

 domesticated, could learn to make its nest with us and rear 

 its young. Bountiful nature has spared to our cold North 

 this one compact bit from the tropics. 



10. Let me, then, go on my bird's-egging, and tell you 

 one more fact about our fairy — -our humming-bird. Au- 

 dubon says that "an all-wise Providence has made this 

 little hero an exception to a rule which prevails almost 

 universally through nature — namely, that the smallest 

 species of a tribe are the most prolific. The eagle lays one, 

 sometimes two eggs ; the small European wren fifteen ; the 

 humming-bird two ; and yet this latter is abundantly more 

 numerous in America than the wren in Europe." All on 

 account of his wonderful courage, admirable instinct, or 

 whatever it is that guards and guides him so unerringly. 

 You see we may well love him who Nature herself loves so 



dearly. Atlantic Monthly. 



RARE AND BEAUTIFUL NESTS. 



1. The woods hold not such another gem as the nest of 

 the humming-bird. The finding of one is an event to date 

 from. . It is the next best thing to finding an eagle's nest. 

 I have met with but two, both by chance. One was placed 

 on the horizontal branch of a chestnut-tree, with a solitary 



