. The birds about us . insects, andthe number they destroy in the course of a season issimply incalculable. Early in May, when we begin to look for wildflowers in abundance and the fruit-trees are in bloom,the Humming-bird suddenly puts in an appearanceand adds a charm to the landscape that remains untilOctober i. They feed upon small insects and notwholly upon nectar, as is popularly supposed, and yetsweets are not by any means unacceptable. They arehot-headed little fellows and fight most fiercely attimes, even occasionally with fatal results. They arenot exactly gregarious and yet a good ma
. The birds about us . insects, andthe number they destroy in the course of a season issimply incalculable. Early in May, when we begin to look for wildflowers in abundance and the fruit-trees are in bloom,the Humming-bird suddenly puts in an appearanceand adds a charm to the landscape that remains untilOctober i. They feed upon small insects and notwholly upon nectar, as is popularly supposed, and yetsweets are not by any means unacceptable. They arehot-headed little fellows and fight most fiercely attimes, even occasionally with fatal results. They arenot exactly gregarious and yet a good many v/ill befound together. My study window that I at present 142 The Birds About Us. occupy is directly upon a village street. On thestone wall there is a trumpet-creeper that has grownabout and above the sill, and when this fine old-fashioned vine is in bloom there is no dearth ofhumming-birds. They come and go continuallywhile the sun shines, and the sound of their wingsand funny squeaky voices is almost The Woodpeckers. 143 CHAPTER VI. THE WOODPECKERS. AS a class the Woodpeckers live on trees and findtheir food by hunting the insect-life that lurksbeneath the bark. They can run over an uprighttrunk of a tree with great rapidity, and move, too, ina sidewise manner that is as quick as direct upwardtravel. They are not given to clinging, head down-ward, to the trees as does the nuthatch, but it is byno means an impossible position for them to beaks are solid, sharp, and so fashioned thatwood may be readily cut away, and this work sofrequently indulged in has given rise to the commonname, woodpecker. They nest in trees, cutting adeep hole in living or dead wood as they see fit, andwithout any lining other than a few fine chips in thevery bottom of the excavation, lay therein a few purewhite eggs. So fond are they of working in woodthat they sometimes make elaborate nests in mid-winter, and abandon them without so much as onceresting there overnight. As
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