54 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
The Origin of the Robin. 
An Indian had a son named Opeeche. 
He was very fond of him and wanted him 
to be a great man among the people. 
He wanted him to be a good hunter and 
a brave soldier. 
One day the father said: “Come, my 
son, it is time for you to fast. You 
shall fast a long time so you will become 
brave.” Then he went to the river and 
bathed and then went into a lodge which 
his father had made for him. There he 
lay on a bed made of pine boughs. 
Every morning his father came to him 
and the boy was very patient not asking 
him for food. On the ninth day Opeeche 
said, u O father, my dreams have been 
evil, my fast has done me no good, let me 
have food and try again.” His father 
would not hear of this, but told him to 
be brave. On the twellth day his father 
prepared food for him. He heard a 
voice and he peeped in the wigwam. 
One day Opeeche painted himself a 
vermilion. He was talking to himsell, 
saying, “My father would not listen to my 
dreams, now it is too late.” Opeeche 
spread his wings and flew into the forest. 
All the children that saw him called him 
Robin Redbreast. 
Merrill, Wis. Frances Wade. 
The Humming Bird. 
One bright sunny morning as I went 
to the hillside where the honeysuckle 
(trows, I saw a little humming bird, 
which was flying so fast I could scarcely 
see it. This little bird is covered with 
the tiniest of feathers no longer than the 
scales on a small minnow. Those on 
the back are bright green and when it 
moves through the sunlight it looks 
bright yellow. It was flying from one 
honeysuckle to the other putting its long 
bill into the flower to get the nectar. Its 
breast is whitish or light gray and its 
throat is ruby red. The female does 
not wear this red badge and is not quite 
as large, its length being only about two 
and three quarters inches. It will not 
alight for you to examine it for its feet 
are too weak to walk on... Young birds 
sometimes perch for a moment on some 
small twigs or convenint clothes lines 
long enough to rest,their wings. ? d , :r . ' 
One time in the morning, after I got up 
I looked out through the window and 
saw one of these little birds sipping the 
nectar from the flowers. His mainjood 
is of tiny insects inside the flower. The 
little bird builds a tiny nest which holds 
two rosy-white eggs, no larger than peas, 
out of which comes the tiniest of baby 
birds possible. 
The nest is made by the male only; It 
finds a knotty branch of maple or apple 
tree, perhaps of honey suckle. The nest 
is formed bv bits of down from the stems 
of ferns, and sometimes of threads. It 
is made firm by being wet with saliva 
from the birds’ mouth and shaped by 
his tiny feet and bill. On the outside of 
the nest it is covered with smallest of 
lichens; cobwebs and saliva are tised in 
binding these to the nest. When com¬ 
pleted it is no larger thari a thimble in¬ 
side, and yet it is plenty large enough 
for the mother to sit in comfortably. 
When her babies are hatched she flies 
away and fills her little crop with insects. 
The babies are hatched in June. When 
, • / V i 4 
she feeds them she thrusts her bill far 
down their throats. 
Humming birds or hummers are found 
nowhere else except in the American 
c mtinent. The Rubv-Throat is the onlv 
kind around our house. After leaving 
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