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THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



KUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD AT NEST 



By William L. Finley 



I was standing on the hillside one May morning when I saw a 

 Rufous Hummingbird come down like the rush of a rocket. He turned 

 and whirled up till I could see but the tiniest speck in the sky. Then 

 he dropped headlong like a red meteor, his gorget puffed out and his 

 tail spread wide. He veered just above the bushes with a sound like a 

 whip drawn through the air and as the impetus carried him up, a high- 

 pitched musical trill sounded above the whir of his wings. Again and 

 again he swung back and forth, evidently in an effort to win the heart 

 of some lady. He must have won her, for I think this was one of a 

 pair that had their home in the Virginia Creeper at the side of the house. 



I have never known just what to think of the male hummingbird. 

 He is an enthusiastic lover, but he disappears entirely when the nest is 

 finished and incubation begins. I think he was never known to give 

 his wife a hand in caring for the young birds. I found it the same with 

 the Eufous Hummingbird as Bradford Torrey says of the Euby- throat; 

 he drops out of existence leaving a widow with twins on her hands. 

 Perhaps the male hummingbird is not an intentional shirk and deserter. 

 I think that somewhere back through the generations of hummingbird 

 experience it was found that such bright colors about the home were 

 unmistakable clues for enemies. Therefore, it is the law of self-pro- 

 tection for him to keep away from the nest. 



When the eggs of the hummingbird hatch, the birds look like two 

 tiny black bugs. The first sign of feathers is a light streak of brown 



