Sir W. Jardine on the Ornithology of the Island of Tobago. 373 



fond of the blossoms of the wild and common plantain tree ; but 

 whether from the circumstance that these blossoms are generally 

 attended by numerous herds of ants, which form the principal 

 part of their food, or for the purpose of extracting sweets, or 

 perhaps both, I am at present unable to determine ; but in all I 

 have dissected, I have found the stomach to contain ants and por- 

 tions of small gnats. They are found principally in the woods by 

 rivulets and in low marshy places/' 



Trochilus mellivorus, Linn. (White-necked Humming- 

 bird.) s. 



" I am not able to decide as to this bird being ' native f it is 

 only at certain seasons to be met with ; but whether it leaves the 

 island or retires to the interior, I am not at present prepared to 

 say. They are seldom to be found in open sunshine ; the morn- 

 ings and evenings are their principal time of feeding, and their 

 evolutions at that time are truly pleasing. At one instant sus- 

 pended, immoveable to the eye (although alternately showing the 

 purest white and green), at the very top of our tallest bamboo, 

 guava or other tree, and the next moment at their root, with two 

 or three zigzags right and left, up and down, dipping either into 

 the river or snapping a fly from the surface and then disappear- 

 ing, but without the twitter the doctor-bird generally utters at 

 departure. I think in all probability this bird feeds more upon 

 winged insects than most of the others, which may account for its 

 being seen so early in the calm mornings, retiring generally into 

 the thick wild plantain bushes as soon as the sun begins to spread 

 his rays upon them, and appearing again in the evening when he 

 is going down, or when his rays cease to act on their spot of 

 pleasure. A female shot on the 19th of April contained an egg 

 almost perfect." 



Trochilus mango, Linn. s. 



This species is not found in Jamaica, as generally said to be ; 

 the T. porphyrurus of Shaw seems to hold its place there. 



Trochilus moschitus, Linn. (Ruby Topaz Humming-bird.) s. 

 " Migratory. This pretty little species arrives here in the end 

 of January or about the ] st of February ; they begin to build 

 about the 10th, sit fourteen days, and lay two pure white eggs. 

 They feed on ants as well as flowers, and on dissection I could 

 distinctly number 115 small ants in the stomach of one. One of 

 these birds having attached its nest to the trunk of a cog-wood 

 tree close by a window at my residence, I found an opportunity 

 of observing their manners during incubation, and 1 can assert, 

 that although 1 confined the young by means of some coarse wire 

 cloth through which the parent could feed them for upwards of 



