Ch. VIII.] HUMMIXG-BIEDS. 1ST 



search ; but not so, it returned at least half-a-dozen 

 times, and seemed to get angry, hurrying about with. 

 buzzing wings. At last it stumbled across its prey, 

 seized it eager] y, and as there was nothing more to come 

 back for, flew straight off to its nest, without taking 

 any further note of the locality. Such an action is not 

 the result of blind instinct, but of a thinking mind ; and 

 it is wonderful to see an insect so differently constructed 

 using a mental process similar to that of man. It is 

 suggestive of the probability of many of the actions of 

 insects that we ascribe to instinct being the result of the 

 possession of reasoning powers. 



Where the tramway terminated at San Benito mine, 

 the valley had greatly contracted in width, and the 

 stream, excepting in time of flood, had dwindled to a 

 little rill. A small rough path, made by the miners to 

 bring in their timber, continued up the brook, crossing 

 and recrossing it. The sides of the valley were very 

 steep, and covered with trees and undergrowth. The 

 foliage arched over the water, forming beautiful little 

 dells, with small, clear pools of water. One of these was 

 a favourite resort of humming-birds, who came there to 

 bathe, for these gem-like birds are very frequent in their 

 ablutions, and I spent many a half-hour in the evenings 

 leaning against a trunk of a tree that had fallen across 

 the stream four or five yards below the pool, and watching 

 them. At all times of the day they occasionally came 

 down, but during the short twilight there was a mass of 

 bathers, and often there were two or three at one time 

 hovering over the pool, which was only three feet across, 

 and dipping into it. Some would delay their evening 

 toilet until the shades of night were thickening, and it 



