Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-28
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES e. TRACEWELL.

| thimble, composed Of vegetable down
and bits Of spider web.
Come to think of it, spider webbing
ought to furnish fine nesting material,
as it is soft. downy and yet possessing
enough Of q sticky character to hang
| together well.
The two tiny white eggs are no bigger
than the end Of your finger: the Matched
birdlings are said to be 50 small that
one can scarcely see them, and very few
| have.
We have never known any one who
has ever seen baby humming bird; If
one may judge from the paucity Of &C
counts available, very few persons have
seen them.
The nests are probably built high, and
are so small that only the trained eye
| Of scientist would be able to recognize
them.
One may hope that the unconscious
cruelty Of Nature does not function In
the case Of humming birds, but permits
them to fly back South in the Fall
without becoming the prey Of larger
| birds.
And those little dots which wing along
IN the air after them-surely those are
the fiedglings. making their first trip in
large, perplexing and wonderful
world.
Almost any bell-shaped flower will at
tract humming birds.
| AS this Is a favorite design with Ma
ture, 1t offers little perplexity to the
| gardener.
Petunias. Chinese bell flowers, gladioli.
trumpet vine and many others will do
the trick
1t would seem that gay colors are
even more essential as lure than sweet
odors, especially If minute insects are
what the birds really eat, as we have
seen stated.
To the average person 1t would appear
as If they imbibe floral nectar as they
dip in their bills. Certainly such food
stutfS would be more In keeping with
the ethereal nature Of the creature, un-
like any other bird In the world. Some
members of the humrning bird family
grow as long as 81 inches, others as
small as as inches, but it is only the
smaller sizes which we regard as typical
Of the breed.
There are few persons interested IN
these creatures who have not at some
capture one, and keep It In q cage at
least long enough to get good look at
| it. Mostly one must observe the hum
ming bird on the wing, or during those
brief spells when It holds itself immov-
able before a flower. Mostly it is q shy
creature that will not come near man,
but If one will keep very quiet, and not
move a muscle, the humming bird may
| fly within foot or two, especially at
twilight, when he is at his boldest.
Yet no one, on second thought, 1t Is
reasonable to believe. would care to i'm
prison one of these creatures so filled
with the spirit of freedom and beauty
We saw recently picture of old 1.-TWO
Toes" the Oklahoma timber wolf, cap
tured after 10 years of depreciation ESQ
called by mani and confined in a ZOO
The picture showed him leaning de-
| jectedly against the bars of his cage, a
creature with broken heart. A few
days later he had escaped hts bars for
ever.
No humming bird, we are convinced,
would tanely submit to a cage, but
would beat his little wings out in an
attempt to answer the call of the bright
sunshine, the balnny air, the whole in
visible but none the less sure call OF
| its ancestral life. Radio energy from
South America, its home, would cut
, through the ether and find its way into
its heart and such brain as it possessed
| No, the humming bird Is a fellow for
| freedom, little but mighty, able to cross
thousands Of miles of forests, rivers
and lakes. and even slices of ocean, in
its pursuit Of life, liberty and essential
happiness, things valued and priced by
1t no less than by those mighty freemen
who founded the United States.