y, for that was before the
road-runner had come to the ranch-house, and I had been pursuing phantom
runners over the hills in the vain attempt to learn something about
them; while here, it seemed, one had been living under my very vine and
fig-tree! To make sure about the nest, I spoke to my neighbor ranchman,
and he told me that when he had been milking during the spring he had
often seen the birds come out of the blue gums, and had also seen them
perching there on the trees. How exasperating! If I had only come
earlier! Now they had gone, and my chance of a nest study was lost.

But my doll was not stuffed with sawdust, for all of that. There was
still much to enjoy, for a mourning dove flew from her nest of twigs
almost over Billy's head, and it made me quite happy to know that the
gentle bird was brooding her eggs in my woods. Then it was delightful to
see a lazuli bunting on her nest down another aisle. It seemed odd, for
there was her little cousin nesting out in the weeds in the bright sun,
while she was raising her brood in the shady forest. The two nests were
as unlike as the sites. The bird outside had used dull green weeds,
while this one used beautiful shining oak stems. I thought the pretty
bird would surely be safe here, but one day when I called, expecting to
see a growing family, I was shocked to find a pathetic little skeleton
in the nest.

One afternoon in riding down the rows, I came face to face with two
mites of hummingbirds seated on a branch. Their grayish green suits
toned in with the color of the blue gums. It was a surprise when one of
them turned to the other and fed it--the mother hummer was small enough
to be taken for a nestling! She sat beside her son and fed him in the
conventional way, by plunging her bill down his open mouth. When she had
flown off, he stretched his wings, whirred them as if for practice, and
then moved his bill as if still tasting the dainty he had had for
supper. He sat very unconcernedly on a low branch right out in the
middle of the road, but Billy did not run over him.

I found two hummers' nests in the eucalyptus during the summer. One
builder was the one the photographer was fortunate enough to catch
brooding; her nest, the one so charmingly placed on a light blue branch
between two straight spreading leaves, like the knot between two bows of
stiff ribbon.

The second nest was on a drooping branch, and, to make it stand level,
was deepened on the down side of