6o 
THE CONDOR 
| Vor.. VII 
ity built so they were entirely under shelter. Three were in vines directly under 
bridges, two in Virginia creepers under porches, another in a blackberry bush 
under a log and so on, where any amount of rain could not bother them. 
When the day was warm the mother did not brood long at a time; five min- 
utes was quite a long spell. It often seemed to me the tiny eggs would chill 
through before she returned, but after a few days they began to lose the flesh tint 
of pink and changed to a dull lead color. In just twelve days the pink capsules 
had developed into creatures that looked exactly like two tiny black bugs, with a 
slight streak of brown extending down the middle of their backs. In a few days 
more the little brats began to fork out all over with tiny black horns and then from 
the end of each horn grew the downy plumes of brown. 
One day I crawled in close behind the bushes at the side of the nest and hid 
myself carefully. The mother darted at me and poised a foot from my nose, as if 
to stare me out of countenance. She looked me over from head to foot twice be- 
fore she seemed satisfied I was harmless. Then she whirled and sat on the nest 
edge. After she had spread her tail like a flicker to brace herself, she craned her 
neck and drew her dagger-like bill straight up above the nest. She plunged it 
down the youngster’s throat to the hilt and started a series of gestures that seemed 
to puncture him to the toes. Then she stabbed the other twin till it made me 
shudder. She was only giving them a dinner after the usual hummingbird method 
of regurgitation but it looked to me like the murder of the infants. 
I have never seen a hummingbird fledgling fall from the nest in advance of 
his strength as a robin often does. When the time comes, he seems to spring into 
the air full grown, clad in glittering armor, as Minerva sprung from the head of 
Jove. While I lay quiet in the bushes I learned the reason. One youngster sat 
on the nest edge, stretched his wings, combed out his tail, lengthened his neck and 
