NESTS, NESTING AND NESTLINGS 



345 



rying grubs and grasshoppers to her 

 brood of young in the decayed hol- 

 low of an apple-tree. 



Bird-nesting with a camera is one 

 of the most fascinating of outdoor 

 pleasures, and nowadays our mu- 

 seums are so large and so accessible, 

 the Nature student devotes his time 

 to watching the brooding mother and 

 the young birds, not taking the nest 

 until after they have left it. In all 

 my experiences, the two extremes of 

 nests which I have found were the 

 ones which gave me the greatest 

 pleasure. One was the tiniest home 

 imaginable and so well concealed that 

 only an accident revealed it. A hum- 

 mingbird darted into an apple tree 

 where there were no blossoms. The 

 most careful scrutiny failed to dis- 

 cover any sign of a nest, but when I 

 climbed to the top and looked down. 

 I saw two white 

 pearl eggs resting 

 in a little thimble- 

 shaped hollow. An 

 instant later and 

 the female was 

 covering them, and 

 then I would never 

 have seen them. 



Kingfisher s, 

 though bright of 

 color and forever 

 bathing in clear, 

 cool waters, are 



TWO HEARTS THAT BEAT AS 

 ONE By W. C. Webster 



the rest of the innocents 

 (hawks) 



MANY ARE CALLED BUT FEW ARE CHOSEN 

 (NEWLY HATCHED BABY LOON) 



By Alfred A. Dunham 



hatched ■ in a dark, filthy under- 

 ground tunnel, upon a bed of ill- 

 smelling fish-bones ; but the hum- 

 mingbird nestlings are quartered in 

 a cradle which does honor even to 

 the delicacy and fairy-like character 

 of these feathered midgets. The 

 busy bills of the parents snatch from 

 the stems of flowers and the protect- 

 ing sheaths of buds the softest of 

 plant down, and for nails and rivets 

 they rob the spider of his web, 

 weaving the gummy strands around 

 and through the little air-castle, 



