The Allen Hummer 
eluding the public eye, and many-storied nests are, therefore, the rule 
rather than the exception. 
The inner fabric of a nest is compounded of vegetable downs, often 
of the purest white, but the characteristic decoration is a certain vivid 
green moss. The Anna Hummer occasionally uses this same moss, 
though I have only one instance of such exclusive use. Allen, on the 
other hand, occasionally, though very rarely, decorates with lichens. 
Careful discrimination is, therefore, necessary, especially since the 
extremes of size in the eggs of the two species overlap considerably. 
The behavior of the female is quite the most interesting part of 
hummingbird nesting. Usually the only apprisal one has of the presence 
of a nest is a little momentary electric buzz summoning you— somewhere. 
Oh! that is the point where the search begins in earnest, for the wing- 
buzz of the departing bird is a sound ventriloquial in its indefiniteness. 
Or if the bird returns to squeak her disapproval, that may only add fuel 
to the fire of your anxiety, without being at all illuminating. Once a 
female Allen, startled from a nest of unknown location, squeaked lustily 
from the top of a live oak, until she was sure she had our attention, 
then she set out on a Himmelfahrt, a heavenly flight, winging rapidly 
upward at an angle of 70 degrees until the eye strained to watch her. 
Nearer and nearer she drifted to the sun until she suddenly lost herself 
to view in that orb, and we nearly lost our eyesight. It was, I submit, 
a clever ruse, quite as effectual as the staple trick of the fleeing high¬ 
wayman who, to baffle his pursuers, wades the bed of a running stream. 
Nests with fresh eggs are, curiously enough, more easily found by 
observation of the bird than those in which incubation is advanced. 
At first, the bird, with the nest-making instinct still strong upon her, 
cannot resist the temptation of a floating bit of down, and she sallies 
forth noisily to capture it, and add it to her nest-lining. Similarly, 
she uncovers the eggs at frequent intervals to snap at insects or to sip 
a beaker of honey, before she has learned to forswear these pleasures 
for her more exacting duties. And no Hummer of refined tastes can be 
expected to resist the attractions of a cunning bit of moss or a brocaded 
lichen, but it must be lugged home and added to the collection. 
At close quarters some birds are stampeded, and will not even 
return to the neighborhood while danger is nigh. Others will twitter 
and squeak, or dash into the intruder’s face, or hover before him with 
waving wings which betoken unquestionable anger. But never yet 
have I found any so bold as to submit to the hand at the nest, as an 
Anna or a Costa will often do. 
Eggs are deposited on alternate days; and incubation, counting 
from the deposition of the second egg, lasts twelve. The youngsters 
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