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OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN AND ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETIES. 
One Year 25 Cents 
Single Copy 3 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society, at Appleton, Wisconsin. 
Entered as second-class matter May 16, 1904 at Appleton, Wis., under the act of Congress of Mar. 3, ’79. 
VOL. IX. 
DECEMBER, 1905. 
NO. (> 
Humming Birds. 
It was on Sunday, the hottest day of a 
hot July, that the Enthusiast, who is a 
friend of mine, came panting up the ter¬ 
race to drag me from my cool retreat. 
“I just can’t go now,” I said. Don’t you 
see I’vejust put on a clean white dress?” 
“Take it off then,” she replied briefly. 
“I’ve found a humming bird’s nest in the 
orchard.” 
That settled it, of course; and equally 
of course she, not I, had lound the nest. 
In finding birds we were as one individ¬ 
ual, somewhat keenly endowed, when we 
hunted together, for she possessed won¬ 
derfully sharp eyes and I could hear the 
faintest lisp of a bird note on the instant. 
But I had no eyes to speak of, and she 
no ear for music. It ta. 1^es 
humming bird's nest, or a humming bird 
when it sits motionless on a dead limb 
some fifteen feet in the ai^. 
The nest was saddled on a limb ot an 
apple tree on the steep slope ot an or¬ 
chard that overhung a mill race. It was 
a beautiful little cup, lined with the 
softest and whitest of plant down upon 
which Mistress Humming Bird was busy 
plastering lichen when we arrived. The 
side that was yet unfinished looked like 
a tuft of cotton on the limb and I never 
should have seen it unless it had been 
carefully pointed out to me. 
The bird, as humming birds are apt to 
be, was very tame and seemed to mind 
us not in the least. She would come 
with an invisible mouth- or bill-full of 
lichen, alight on the nest, put her bill 
over the side and affix the morsel. Then, 
sitting in the nest, she would put her 
head over the edge and pat and poke the 
outside with her long bill, then press her 
breast against the inside, turning around 
and around as if on a pivot, intending, 
evidently, to have her dainty cup per¬ 
fectly smooth and circular. She would 
keep this up for what seemed a long 
time, then, like a flash, she would be off 
after more lichen. Sometimes she would 
light on the dead branch above men¬ 
tioned and make a careful toilet, before 
making another journey. When the 
nest was finished we waited impatiently 
a dav or two before she decided to lav 
%/ j 
the first pearly egg. By climbing on a 
chair one of us could just peer into the 
nest while the other held onto the chair 
like grim death to keep it from starting 
for the mill race. 
The next day there was another egg— 
each about the size of a large pea. How 
we anticipated the time when the young 
birds would first appear! But there 
were not to be any young birds. One 
morning when we come to the orchard 
we found one tiny shell upon the ground, 
the nest was half torn from the limb and 
the little mistress was nowhere to be 
seen. 
Even the finding of another nest far¬ 
ther up the slope with one young bird in 
it did not console us. But we w r atched 
him for several days and saw the mother 
go through the terrifying process of feed- 
