Persistent Nesting of the Anna's Hummingbird
Persistent Nesting of the Anna's Hummingbird.
For several years an Anna's Hummingbird had reared her young in a cork elm in front of my home, and in 1897 I again welcomed her. On Feb. 16 the nest contained one egg but that night a heavy wind storm brushed it against an adjoining limb and the little home was ruined. March I0 the nest containing the second set of eggs situated about twenty feet from the first, fell into the hands of an eager collector. Weeks passed, and although the dainty song of the male was often heard from his favorite perch on a telegraph wire, the female could not be found. Imagine my surprise when on April 23 as I was passing down the steps, I saw the third nest not six inches from my head. I could not molest it, but unfortunately I am not the only collector in the world, and in a few days the eggs were gone, and yet the good mother was not disheartened for in a week she was carrying material for the fourth nest, which she was constructing on one of the previous year. This time four was the charm. The nests were all of similar construction, the first one, however, containing a number of feathers.
ERNEST ADAMS
San Jose, Cal.
