646 A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 
Nest: A dainty circle an inch and a half in diameter, made of fern- 
wool, plant-down, etc., shingled with lichens to match the color 
of the branch on which it is saddled. 
Eggs: 2, pure white, the size of soup-beans. 
This is the only native Humming-bird of eastern North 
America, and it is impossible to confuse it with any other bird 
in its range. 
THE HUMMING-BIRD 
Is it a monster bee, 
Or is it a midget bird, 
Or yet an air-born mystery 
That now yon marigold has stirred, 
And now on vocal wing 
To a neighbor bloom has whirred 
In an aery ecstasy, in a passion of pilfering? 
Ah ! ’tis the Humming-bird, 
Rich-coated one, 
Ruby-throated one, 
That is not chosen for song, 
But throws its whole rapt sprite 
Into the secrets of flowers 
The summer days along, 
Into most odorous hours 
It’s a murmurous sound of wings too swift for sight. 
Richard Burton 
THE WOODPECKERS 
“ Five or six species of Woodpeckers are familiarly known 
throughout the eastern United States, and in the west are re- 
placed by others of similar habits. Several species remain in 
the northern states through the entire year, while others are 
more or less migratory. 
“ Farmers are prone to look upon Woodpeckers with sus- 
picion. When the birds are seen scrambling over fruit trees 
and pecking at the bark, and fresh holes are found in the tree, 
it is concluded that they are doing harm. Careful observers, 
however, have noticed that, excepting a single species, these 
birds rarely leave any important mark on a healthy tree, but 
that when a tree is affected by wood-boring larvae the insects 
are accurately located, dislodged, and devoured. In case the 
holes from which the borers are taken are afterwards occupied 
and enlarged by colonies of ants, these ants in turn are drawn 
out and eaten. 
