Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-06-17

cracker soaked in Malaga wine and
sugar, and brought to them all the
honey holding flowers that | could
iin3, When | brought in bouquet
they Immediately few to it. buzzing
joSously.
gave them a snuffer tray for
bathing tub, but one of them would
never Voluntarily take his bath, SO the
other would chase him around the
roam. take him by one leg, drag him
to the tray, and pull him into the
wafer. lie seemed to be doing this
for fun; there WIS never any quarrel
iag between them. As there was an
open fireplace i'll the room | always
mad to cover i with shawl When l
let them out. but one day I forget to
cover it before opened the cage door
ard one of them took bee line for the
fireplace, but, as though frightened at
the dark chasm. he flew quickly back
to me, alighted on my hand, and sat
there trembling for some moments.
When | came into the room, after
leaving them for awhile, they would
lily to me, chirping and seeming very
glad to see me. They never showed
any fear of anyone, and seemed to en-
JOY lighting on my finger, and would
look in my face very intelligently.
Sometimes they got out of the house.
but always returned and usually
alighted on the comb in my mothers
hair
In the fall after the flowers were
gone they did not seem well. During
the last weeks of their life there were
81 I,,,+ Is. II.
heads under the apple trees. | was
making a silkweed cape, and as the
feathery stuff was flying about the
house one Of them cot some of it into
his throat and died the next day. He
had appeared stupid for some days be-
fore. The other, who had seemed a
little better than this one, grew worse
after the death of his companion and
lived only two weeks longer.
One warm day in the middle of
October. as | was going into the orchard
to Get the few remaining clover bios
SONS. | took the bird in the cage with
me, thinking the air might do him
good. ! held the cage in one hand and
was picking clover with the other, but
when | was going to put the clover in
the cage | found the door open and no
bird there. | suppose that the wind
had blown the door open and he had
fallen out and died | called him by
the pet names which he knew, and ii
he had been living he would have
answered me. I searched long and
carefully for him, but never found him.
think they died for lack of their food,
the honey of flowers. If | could have
taken them to the southern states ear
~ in September presume they could
have lived through the winter. | had
become very much attached to my
beautiful tiny pets, and felt their loss
keenly.
But have the nest yet, a lovely
wonder, of softest butf-brown felt.
covered externally with lichens, and
glued to the remnant of broken twiy.
the nest forming one and the twig the
other prong of fork, and the llchen
extending in an nnbroken line from
the nest along the twi g: tiny twim.
no larger than straw, supports it from
beneath. Burroughs says: 1T is an
event in ones life to find hunming-
birds nest" Twas SO much interest
81 in the still greater event of finding
and caring for the young birds that |
lid not think m:srh about the nest un-
IL it was all that remained to me eX-
opt the III: u}@-F of my tanned hum
Aing birds