. Bird lore . th, and no eggs were visible then. It wouldappear, therefore, that the birds had hatched only a trifle over a week after thesecond egg was laid. I could only guess at the presence of the little birds at first,for the nest was rather inaccessible, but soon the tiny bills began to show whenthe mother came with food. There seemed no danger that they would sufferfrom indigestion or gout, for they were fed very, very seldom. The male, as usual,gave no help to his mate, but she seemed equal to the increasing cares as herlittle ones grew to lusty birds. When about three weeks old, one b
. Bird lore . th, and no eggs were visible then. It wouldappear, therefore, that the birds had hatched only a trifle over a week after thesecond egg was laid. I could only guess at the presence of the little birds at first,for the nest was rather inaccessible, but soon the tiny bills began to show whenthe mother came with food. There seemed no danger that they would sufferfrom indigestion or gout, for they were fed very, very seldom. The male, as usual,gave no help to his mate, but she seemed equal to the increasing cares as herlittle ones grew to lusty birds. When about three weeks old, one bird left the nest, sitting for hours onnearby twigs. For some time the mother fed both of her little ones, then desertedthe one which was still in the nest. She may have come to grief, but I might bemore inclined to be charitable had not the older bird left also. From about two oclock in the afternoon on the day when the first one leftthe nest, they were never seen again, and, after the deserted baby had cried. RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS NEST AND EGGS for about twenty-four hours, he got out of the nest and soon fluttered to the offered him sweetened water in a spoon and he drank greedily. He waspassed over to me and I took him home. His daytime cage was the parlor, wherehe sat by the window on a bit of stick held by a monkey-wrench, or flew aboutthe room at will. At night I put his perch in a round food-screen and placed him (198) Hummingbird Eccentricities 199 by an upstairs open window. He was exquisitely fearless as he flew to myfinger to eat honey from a spoon, or fluttered before a petunia into which Ihad poured sweetened water. He had his mothers zip-zip, which meant flowersor happiness, and a plaintive baby peet, peet, when he wanted food. I read up ondiet and tried various kinds of food. The varieties of bugs which he was sup-
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn
