The Anna Hummer 
confidence which the bird displays. An Anna possessed by the mothering 
instinct will submit to many indignities before she will desert her post. 
The first nest I ever saw was pointed out to me by Mr. Bowles. After 
photographing it to satisfaction, I dared my companion to try to touch 
the bird in the nest. To my astonishment he succeeded in doing so, 
raising a finger slowly from below and displacing a dainty wing without 
visible annoyance on the bird’s part. Next I took a turn and accom¬ 
plished the same thing. I raised the drooping wing and crossed it over 
her back. Birdikins patiently replaced it. 1 did it again, and she 
glanced down at the offending hand with mild protest. “If you please, 
sir, I prefer to have my wing down, so-fashion.” Could anything have 
been sweeter and more appealing! Of course that set was “spoiled” 
for any collection. 
My next venture was no better. An empty nest had been found on 
a slender horizontal branch of a sycamore tree. Returning the next day 
when there should have been only one egg, I found the little mother 
seated. By all analogies she should have buzzed away in wild alarm. 
Allen or Black-chin or Rufous, yes; but not Anna. Arrived abreast I 
shook the branch, but Anna only looked troubled. 1 swayed it to and 
fro, and she thought it great fun. I said, “Shoo” and she opened her 
eyes in mild surprise. Aw, what’s the use! We are no Annapophagi! 
Nests of the Anna Hummer vary in construction perhaps more 
widely than those of any other local species. Some are massive and as 
heavily adorned with lichens as those of the eastern Ruby-throat. Per¬ 
haps it is necessary to say adorned externally, for a Ruby-throat’s nest in 
the M. C. O. collection is also lined on the inside of the cup with lichens. 
Plant-down is, of course, the staple ingredient for wall construction, 
and this often appears unadorned in the lining; but Anna has also a pen¬ 
chant for feathers. These may be as few as one or two set rakishly on the 
rim, or they may constitute a perfect pillow. Sometimes the wall curves 
inward slightly toward the top, but the walls are usually round-edged and 
heavy. As for size, they are just large enough to accommodate the bird’s 
body, and that is about as indefinite as the bird is. One nest in the 
M. C. O. collection is .75 inches across inside and contains eggs .60 inches 
long. Whoppers, to put it mildly! Mr. Bowles took a set on February 
17, 1912, in which both eggs were double-yolked. 
At the close of the breeding season some of the Anna Hummers follow 
the flowers to the higher levels, but the movement is irregular and appar¬ 
ently insusceptible of exact definition. Obviously, there is not “room 
at the top” for all; so the lower levels are never quite deserted. Also, 
this upward movement appears to take a northward trend, so that Anna 
Hummers appear in late summer in the Siskiyou Mountains and on Shasta, 
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