50 
The Male Ruby-Thro at. 
said: “I watched the nest two or three 
times a day, from a time before the 
young were hatched till they departed; 
and now you mention it, it occurs to 
me that I never did see the male, hut 
only the white-breasted female.” 
Next I sought the testimony of pro¬ 
fessional ornithologists; and here my 
worst suspicions seemed in a fair way 
to be confirmed, although the greater 
number of my correspondents were un¬ 
happily compelled to plead a want of 
knowledge. Dr. A. K. Fisher had 
found, as he believed, not less than 
twenty-five nests, and to the best of 
his recollection had never seen a male 
bird near one of them after it was com¬ 
pleted. He had watched the female 
feeding her young, and, when the nests 
contained eggs, had waited for hours 
on purpose to secure the male, but al¬ 
ways without result. 
Mr. William Brewster wrote: “I 
have found, or seen in situ, twelve 
hummers’ nests, all in Massachusetts. 
Of these I took nine, after watching 
each a short time, probably not more 
than an hour or two in any case. Of 
the remaining three, I visited one three 
or four times at various hours of the 
day, another only twice, the third but 
once. Two of the three contained 
young when found. The third was 
supposed to have young, also, but could 
not be examined without danger to its 
contents. I have never seen a male 
hummer anywdiere near a nest, either 
before or after the eggs were laid, but, 
as you will gather from the above brief 
data, my experience has not been ex¬ 
tensive ; and in the old days, when most 
of my nests were found, the methods 
of close watching now in vogue were 
unthought of. In the light of the tes¬ 
timony to which you refer, I should 
conclude, with you, that the male hum¬ 
mer must occasionally assist in the 
care of the young, but I am very sure 
that this is not usually, if indeed often, 
the case.” 
Mr. H. W. Henshaw reported a 
[July, 
similar experience. He had found 
four nests of the ruby-throat, but had 
seen no male about any of them after 
nidification was begun. “I confess,” 
he says, “that I had never thought of 
his absence as being other than acci¬ 
dental, and hence have never made any 
observations directly upon the point; 
so that my testimony is of comparative¬ 
ly little value. In at least one in¬ 
stance, when the female was building 
her nest, I remember to have se.en the 
male fly with her and perch near by, 
while she was shaping the nest, and 
then fly off with her after more mate¬ 
rial. I don’t like to believe that the 
little villain leaves the entire task of 
nidification to his better half (we may 
well call her better, if he does); but 
my memory is a blank so far as tes¬ 
timony affirmative of his devotion is 
concerned.” Mr. Henshaw recalls an 
experience with a nest of the Rivoli 
humming - bird {Eugenes fulgens), in 
Arizona, — a nest which he spent two 
hours in getting. “I was particularly 
anxious to secure the male, but did not 
obtain a glimpse of him, and I remem¬ 
ber thinking that it was very strange.” 
He adds that Mr. C. W. Richmond 
has told him of finding a nest and tak¬ 
ing the eggs without seeing the father 
bird, and sums up his own view of the 
matter thus: — 
“Had any one asked me offhand, 
‘ Does the male hummer help the female 
feed the young? ’ I am quite sure I 
should have answered, ‘Of course he 
does.’ As the case now stands, how¬ 
ever, I am inclined to believe him a 
depraved wretch.” 
• Up to this point the testimony of 
my correspondents had been unanimous, 
but the unanimity was broken by Dr. 
C. Hart Merriam, who remembers that 
on one occasion his attention was called 
to a nest (it proved to contain a set of 
fresh eggs) by the flying of both its 
owners about his head; and by Mr. 
W. A. Jeffries, who in one case saw 
the father bird in the vicinity of a 
