May, ?9o5 ] HUMMINGBIRD STUDIES 6x preened the feathem of his breast. Then he tried his wings. They began slowly as if getting up steam. He made them buzz till they fairly lifted him off his feet. He had to hang on to keep from going; he could fly but the time was not ripe. A little gnat buzzed slowly past within two inches of his eye. The nestling instinctively stabbed at the in- sect but fell short. Each bant- ling took turns at practising on the edge of the nest till they mastered the art of balancing and rising in the air. Below the hummer's nest the water trickled down the basin of the canyon. One of these tiny pools was the hummer's bath-tub. It was shallow enough at the edge for her to drop her feet and wade. For a moment her wing-tips and tail would skim the surface and it was all over. She dressed and ADULT RUFOUS HUMMER SUNNING ITSELF ON CLOTHES-LINE preened with all the formality of a queen. After the bath I watched her circle about the clusters of the geranium and drink at the honey-cups of the columbine. She seemed only to will to be at a YOUNG RUFOUS HUMMER flower and she was there; the hum of the wings was all that told the secret. She was a marvel in the air. She backed as easily as she darted forward. She side-stepped, rose or dropped as easily as she poised. I have never known exact- ly what to think of the male rufous. I never saw such an enthusiastic lover during the days of courtship and the beginning of house-building. He simply ran crazy-mad in love. As soon as the cottony cup was finished and the mother had cradled her twin white eggs, the father dis- appeared. He merely dropped out of existence, as Bradford Torrey says, leaving a widow with the twins on her hands. This generally seems to be the case, for at the different nests where I have watched, I never but once saw a
