ie eNO el UB ON FSO Cine vrey 25 
the top. There he was soon joined by his astounded mother and 
my last glimpse of the two showed them perched contentedly in 
the tree top and although Anna was certainly getting a thorough 
shaking the unpleasantness of this was doubtless offset by the 
good meal which he was receiving. 
MARY ELIZABETH OSBORNE, Evanston 
To a Butcher Bird 
Come closer, let me see your glossy coat— 
You needn’t fear a farmer boy like me, 
For truly I enjoy your company— 
Come, let me hear the song that’s in your throat. 
Pick up the fattest grubs my plow throws out, 
And carry to that hungry brood I found 
In yonder nest, high off the ground, 
With feathers lined within, and twigs without. 
Your acts of cruelty I long have known; 
I’ve seen the meadow-mice, and sparrows too, 
Which you impale on barb or thorny snag. 
And yet, that hunter with the blood-stained bag 
Who passed a while ago—he’s worse than you. 
You kill to live—he kills for sport alone. 
WAYNE GARD 
The Chicago Evening Post—Pillar to Post 
A Humming Bird's Nest 
From the Decatur Junior Herald, under the date of July 17th, 
we copy a letter concerning a humming bird: 
I read a few weeks ago in The Herald -of some of the Decatur 
people going out to see mocking birds. I wonder how many of 
the bird lovers have seen a humming bird’s nest. I was lucky 
enough to find one this week. While digging bait as a lure for 
some of our finny friends in Kaskaskia river, I heard the peculiar 
whir of the humming bird’s wings and stopped to watch. 
She was just building, carrying tiny bits of cottonwood “cot- 
ton” and placing it to form a small round nest. She would fairly 
hammer it in place with her slender beak. This was on a Mon- 
day. On Saturday the nest was completed and the tiny mother 
was sitting on two eggs about the size of a hat pin head. The 
completed nest is about the size of the cup of a bur acorn, and 
it is so cleverly camouflaged with bits of green leaves as to be 
nearly invisible, even though it is placed on an almost bare por- 
tion of a maple limb. There the mother bird sits, perched on 
top of the tiny nest swaying with every breath of air, a sight that 
is worth going to see. Though I am 54 years old and a life long 
lover of birds this is my first view of a humming bird’s home. 
WILLIAM BULLOCK, Route 2 
