27 
time, it is perhaps easier to attract these birds than almost any others. 
They can build in almost any tree and find food in every garden and 
orchard. Hence abundance of nesting material, linen and cotton 
thread and .strings, store twine, yarn or tow, may decide a pair to 
build on the spot. A little hair for a chipping sparrow is another 
thing not to be forgotten, and plenty of 
honeysuckles and other nectar-bearing 
fLowers will be sure to attract humming 
birds. 
A rout of evanescence 
With a revolving wheel ; 
A resonance of emerald, 
A rush of cochineal; 
And every blossom on the vine 
Adjusts her tumbled head— 
The mail from Tunis, probably, 
An easy morning ride. 
—Emily Dickinson , 2 d Series , 130. 
A flash of harmless lightning, 
A mist of rainbow dyes, 
The burnished sunbeams brightening 
From flower to flower he flies. 
While wakes the nodding blossom, 
But just too late to see 
What lip hath touched her bosom 
And drained her rosary. 
—John B. Tabb, p. 39. 
Whatever we do to attract a pair of 
birds to nest on the premises must be 
done, of course, at the proper time, and 
to this end we should know especially 
when each species begins to nest , and our 
preparations should be made a week or 
two before this occurs. The following 
table, which we may call a Life Chart of a few of our commoner 
species, may serve to bring a number of points of interest together in 
convenient form for reference. It would be well if a table of this 
kind could be constructed each year by classes in nature study for 
each locality. This would bring out variations in season from year to 
year and define these periods more exactly, and so furnish incentive 
and guidance to active work of supplying homes and nesting materials 
and of saving the fledglings from cats. Here, too, the blank spaces 
under period of incubation and length of time the young remain in the 
nest form the most interesting part of the table, from the fact that any 
child with opportunity and a little patience may fill them in. 
