File:American birds, studied and photographed from life (1907) (14563769649).jpg

Identifier: americanbirdsstu00finl (find matches)
Title: American birds, studied and photographed from life
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Finley, William L. (William Lovell), 1876-1953
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, C. Scribner's sons
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
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 queen.After the bath I watched her circle about the clusters ofgeraniums and drink at the honey cups of the columbine.She seemed only to will to be at a flower and she wasthere; the hum of the wings was all that told the secret.She 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
Text Appearing After Image:
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 other baby till It mademe shudder. It looked like the mur

Note About Images