. American birds, studied and photographed from life . ttle cup without the slightest pausethat I could see, yet she lit as lightly as the touch of float-ing thistle-down. Below the hummers nest the water trickled downthe basin of the canon. In places It formed pools anddropped over the rocky edges. One of these tiny basinswas the hummers bath-tub. It was shallow enough at theedge for her to wade. For a moment her wing-tips andtail would skim the surface, and it was all over. Shedressed and preened with all the formality of a the bath I watched her circle about the clusters ofgeran
. American birds, studied and photographed from life . ttle cup without the slightest pausethat I could see, yet she lit as lightly as the touch of float-ing thistle-down. Below the hummers nest the water trickled downthe basin of the canon. In places It formed pools anddropped over the rocky edges. One of these tiny basinswas the hummers bath-tub. It was shallow enough at theedge for her to wade. For a moment her wing-tips andtail would skim the surface, and it was all over. Shedressed and preened with all the formality of a the bath I watched her circle about the clusters ofgeraniums and drink at the honey cups of the seemed only to will to be at a flower and she wasthere; the hum of the wings was all that told the was a marvel in the air. She backed as easily as shedarted forward. She side-stepped, rose, and dropped aseasily as she poised. While the nestlings were very young the mother neverleft them alone long at a time. If the day was warm. Ifthe sun shone on the nest, the mother hovered over with. The Hummingbird at Home 9 wings and tail spread wide. When it was hottest, Iveseen the mother sit forward on the nest edge, spread hertail till she showed the white tips of her feathers, andkeep up a constant quivering, fanning motion with herwings to give protection to the frail midgets in the nest. When I first crawled in among the bushes close to thenest the little mother darted at me and poised a foot frommy nose, as if to stare me out of countenance. She lookedme all over from head to foot twice, then she seemed con-vinced that I was harmless. She whirled and sat on thenest edge. The bantlings opened wide their hungry-mouths. She spread her tail like a flicker and bracedherself against the nest side. She craned her neck anddrew her daggerlike bill straight up above the nest. Sheplunged It down the babys throat to the hilt and started aseries of gestures that seemed fashioned to puncture himto the toes. Then she stabbed the ot
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishern, booksubjectbirds
