118 
WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 
home in triumph. There were only two, though, as in the 
other instance, there had been three eggs. This curious fact 
is common to several families of birds, and seems to be a 
provision against accident, though I believe the third egg 
is seldom permitted to hatch. 
We had now two families which seemed to get along to- 
gether very amiably. The male of the ruby -throats was 
easily distinguishable by the dark feathers on the throat 
which marked the place where, on his next moulting, that 
breastplate of glittering mail should appear blazing like a 
talisman of carbuncle. We were greatly distressed that we 
should have to run all the risks of their problematic return 
in the following spring before we should be enabled to solace 
our eyes in the enjoyment of this coveted pleasure. 
We now frequently captured old birds in the library, 
and never failed in taming them entirely in a few days. At 
one time, our family consisted of six, and we had but to 
walk out with the white cup and sound the gathering chirp, 
and, one after another, the whole of them came skimming 
down from the trees in all directions, to alight upon its rim, 
or upon us if they were not hungry. 
The novelty of such pets attracted great attention ; and 
we had many visitors ; and the fair young girls plead hard 
with me to give them one — ^but I could never consent to 
trust my delicate people in unaccustomed hands, except in 
a single instance, in which the fair pleader bewitched me 
with eyes so like those of the bird, that I gave her one of 
the old ones, and heard to my sorrow that it died in a 
week. 
Our lovely family broke up with the autumn. One after 
one, they disappeared suddenly, and we were left alone — 
alas, this time forever — ^none of them ever came back ! 
Have we been describing creatures of blind and fated im- 
pulse — machines without volition, propelled, like any other 
arrangement of springs and wheels, b}^ elemental forces, on 
through a certain and fixed round of action over which they 
