Page:Bird-lore Vol 03.djvu/123

 J^otes from Jfteld and ^tudp Two Young Hummingbirds On May 25, 1900, I found a Humming- bird's nest in a small beech, on a branch about ten feet from the ground, and with the aid of a step-ladder was able to keep watch of the incubation of the eggs and growth of the young birds. The nest was just finished, for the first egg appeared the next day, and by the 28th both eggs were there. Two weeks from the day it was laid — on June 9th — the first egg hatched and the other egg the day after. The little things bore slight resemblance to most young birds, for as they lay flat on the bottom of the nest, with necks outstretched, they were a little less than an inch in length, dark slate- color, with a little yellowish fuzz on the bodies, exceedingly thin necks, three- cornered heads and short yellow bills. The eyes were closed. Two days later the fuzz had grown so that the bodies were nearly hidden by it, though the heads were still bare, and the bills were almost twice their original length. On June 18, when the first- hatched bird was nine days old, I noted the following: "The young Humming- birds nearly fill the nest. They are much browner than at first, and the fuzz does not seem to have grown much, if any. They have, however, quantities of tiny pin-feathers like needle-points, on the heads as well as the bodies, and the bills are nearly a third of an inch in length. The eyes are still closed." Four days later both had their eyes open and a few of the pin-feathers were breaking. Until nearly ready to fly the growth was so rapid — especially of the bills — that the difference was easily noticeable from day to day, while two days made a decided change. And before they were many days old the younger of the pair caught up in size so that the difference between them, at first so pronounced, was entirely lost. (i For several days before leaving the nest the birds were well feathered and well grown, showing the head and white throat over one edge of the nest and the white- cornered tail at the other, but up to the last day the bills looked to me not quite full length. They flew the first day of July, having been twenty- one and twenty- two days in the nest. A week or two later began a great deal of chippering and love-making in the vi- cinity of the old nest, and July 21 I found a second nest, no doubt built by the same pair, in another beech almost touching the first tree, but in too inaccessible a position for close observation. At no time did I see the male near either nest. In this neighborhood Hummingbirds seem to build almost always in beeches, for of nine other nests found not far from these two, seven were in beech, the others in oak and sweet gum. — Isabella McC. Lemmon, Englen-vood, N. J. My Robin Neighbors There are two large maple trees in front of my home, both within ten feet of the windows of my room. One morning in April, 1900, two robins attracted my at- tention by Hying about one of the trees. They kept flying from branch to branch, and it was evident that they were looking for a place to build a nest. Finally they decided to build their nest between two branches on a level with my window. They immediately began bringing dry grass and pieces of straw, but the third or fourth time that the male came with his bill full of straw he met with an accident. The place between the branches was very narrow and, as he was flying in, he hit against one of them and rumpled both his feathers and his temper. This evidently made him dissatisfied with the place and they both flew away. 08)