The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-10-03
TWO RUNNING BIRDS.
LFrom the CornhiH Magazine.l

III Z =
I used to feel very envious when
some of the older residents would
speak of these Trinidad botanical gar
dens as having been the home of the
humming bird. Alas! the lovely little
creatures are seldom to be seen there
now, in spite of the protective legisla-
ton of many years past. But the ruth
less tourist will always buy q hum
ming birds nest, especially with its
two sugarplum-li like eggs in it, so the
enterprising black boy keeps a sharp
lookout for these articles of commerce.
Soon after we first went there found
a wee nest on a, low branch of a tree
close to Government House, with a
darling little bird sitting in it. I peeped
cautiously very often during the next
few days, and the young mother grew
so accustomed to my visits that she
would let me stand within a yard of
the bOugh. At last some microscopic
fragments of eggShel appeared on the
moss beneath, and on my next visit,
when the little hen was away getting
food, beheld a thing very like a bee
with a beak This object seemed to
that in a week it looked quite like
respectable bird. Imagine my rage
and despair when found one morning
the branch broken off and the baby
bird dead on the ground. My sweet
little nest had been taken for the sake
of the siXpence it would fetch next time
a tOurist-laden yacht came I'M
A much happier fate attended a hum
ming bird which built it's nest in
small palm growing in a friends draw
ing room 1 paid many visits to that
drawing room during the birds occu-
pancy, and anything so interesting as
its manners and customs can not be
imagined. Instead of bringing material
from outside for the nest, the tiny
builder requisitioned the floss silk from
a baH-frlnge. The nest, unusually gay
in color, hung down a couple Of inches
from one of the serrated points of the
palm leaf; but when 7 was first invited
to come and look on it was not quite
completed to the feathered 1ady's salts
of the open windows and about the
room
The master of the house, at my re-
quest. seated himself in his usual arm
chair and opened his newspaper and
made myself as small as I could in a
distant corner. Our patience was soon
rewarded, for there was the little bird
balancing itself with its vibrating
wings just above the newspaper. How
ever, as no building material was forth
coming form that source. she flashed
over to my corner, and quicker than
the eye could follow had snatched a
thread of silk from a work-t BILE, and
was off to her work again. The little
creature got quite tame, and her con-
fidence was well placed, for nothing
could exceed the charming kindness of
her host and hostess. The eggs were
laid and Matched in due time, and the
master of the house told me he used
to get up at the day-dawn and open
his draWingrOom window to let the lit
tie mother out to get food for her
babies. This necessitated his remaining
the rest of the morning in the drawing
room, as he said it would not have been
safe to have left it. I naturally thought
he feared for the safety of his wife's
pretty things, but oh, nO-what he
guarded was the nest, lest it should
meet the fate of mine and be stolen.