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vA^/Zt^r-Trvfy^. . 
"Ruby Th roate d Hu mming-b ird, (Iroehilus 
colubris). May 30th, this afternoon, as a friend 
and I were tramping through the woods we saw 
a hummer. It soon alighted on a limb of a spruce 
tree, and began to work at its nest which was on 
the end of the limb, and about fifteen feet from 
the ground. The nest was not quite completed, 
and the bird took no notice of us. I obtained the 
eggs on June 2d. June 2d, I found another Ruby 
tliroat’s nest in the same woods about 200 yards 
away. It was on the end of a large spruce limb, 
and about thirty-five feet high. In trying to get 
the eggs they broke. Twenty yards off was an old 
nest which I suppose had been used the year be- 
fore. June 5th, saw a boy find a nest on a spruce 
limb overhanging a small run, but he broke the 
eggs in trying to get them. July 19tli, took a set 
of two eggs from a spruce limb about five feet 
high. The tree was on the side of a hill along 
Wissahickon Creek and about ten feet from it. 
O.&O. XI. Jan.18S6.p7 
The Koby-throated Hummins Bird. I took the nest 
of the Ruby- throated Hummingbird June IT. There were 
two eggs slightly incubated. They were larger than I ex- 
pected. It seems to me they are large for the size of the 
bird. The nest was on an elm tree about thirty-five feet 
from the ground. On July 9th, I found another nest about 
six rods from this— probably of the same bird’s. When 
found it had one bird just hatched, and one egg which 
hatched the next day. The young were almost black and 
are yet (July 14,) except a strip of down on their backs 
which is light brown. I have not seen the male yet, though 
I have watched closely for him. The old bird is rather shy 
and will not come very close to me, but buzzes around 
through the tree-top uttering almost constantly a low chirp 
which sounds much like the squeak of a young mouse. I 
did not hear her make any sound while perched .— Vernon 
Bailey , Elk River , Minn. 
O.&O. IX. Aug. 1884. p, ion- 
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which are held in place by numerous cob- 
webs. This piece of bird architecture is 
built by both birds and takes from five to six 
days to complete. The female then deposits 
her complement of eggs and incubation be- 
gins at once and is the work of the female, 
the male standing guard, or securing food 
. for his mate. At the end of 8 or 9 days 
the young are hatched, and then for the 
next two weeks the parent birds are kept 
busy from daylight until dark finding food 
for these hungry mites. At the end of this 
time they are large enough to leave the nest, 
and in a few days more are left to shift for 
themselves. About the first of September 
they are off for the south, the old ones a few 
days in advance of the young. 
A. kS 1 . Ingersoll. 
0 .& O. Vol.18, May. 1898 p 79 
Dec. 1887.J 
AND OC 
- - „ mg to what I 
and over her baby birds and expired, and foi t 
months afterwards her dead body was to be^ , g thig . 
seen in this position, a silent yet e < K 1 U< 11 ie fUe first 
proach to the eruelty and rapacity of the great;^ bjrd )ay 
destroyer man. ,ks Tuesday 
The next spring, 1886, the male appeared r firgt ob _ 
with another mate, and aftei hoveling a ou ^. nes tg 
the old tree for a few days they leit it ,im e dev0 (; ed 
went to a wooded slope a half mile away, and tw0 i 
in a large white oak built a nest an leaie y> u i}y_ 
their young. Probably evidences of the foul! Night _ 
murder committed a year before sti lemaine u jj_ ure and 
at the old nest and decided them against using ^ conform 
it. , .11 this fact 
Last spring, 1887, they appeared about March ^ ^ 
1st and at once set about repairing the o d^. Norr j g 
home in the sycamore, and for two weeks, c ui n0ver (j een 
ing which time I was making professional and 
up the river in my boat every two or thl ’ e e diftle that 
days, they came under my observation, and^ eutirely 
with no thought of doing so at first, the desire wag with 
began to develop and grow upon me to scale r ^ 
that tree and secure the contents of that nest, geagon 
until finally on March 12th I gathered toget lei be made . 
a coil of rope, a ball of string, my climbers and know , ng 
an axe. I was accompanied by a fuenc an statements 
we repaired to the tree and at once set about 
devising the best means to get up to the. foik,:,^ j n ( ormed 
about thirty feet high. We finally decided to a , ]ow 
cut a hackberry sapling that grew near by and otherwige 
by trimming up about twenty-five feet of it we 
succeeded, after much tugging and lifting m Qf collee _ 
elevating it against the side of the tree. I ut-^ hav0 Qp _ 
ting on my climbers, I went up this and from jj umming . 
the top was enabled by the aid of the ® a P-y idow and 
sprouts that here sprung out to. get ovei 111 ° uid t j] e y 
the forks of the tree. After resting a few min- mal it 
utes I now went on rapidly towards the nest dedu(;tjon 
until I had come within ten feet o it. ieu va j occurs 
made the startling discovery that the limb onr gecond 
which the nest was placed narrowed down to & third 
the thickness of my leg and was hollow and . 
full of Woodpecker holes on the under side. It g ^ meang 
two eggs, 
tlie vexed 
ute a set. 
will give 
’ deserve, 
ae benefit 
Utless one 
or, 1 will 
say mat me nest may De completed and one 
egg laid when found and should he return on 
the following day and find the set complete, 
this only proves the first egg had been depos- 
ited one day prior to the finding. 
O.&O. XII. Deo. 1887 p, //£-/ ?? 
/29 
