50 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



to our knowledge of the ornithology of those islands. 

 The gun looked, as I said, like a cane. The bar- 

 rel was slender, and painted to resemble a stick of 

 mahogany ; the stock unscrewed, and could be put in 

 the pocket; and as the ramrod went inside the barrel, 

 where it was secured by a tompion, and hammer and 

 trigger shut down out of sight, this gun made a very 

 convenient walking-stick. Doubly valued by me on 

 account of having belonged to my friend and to a natu- 

 ralist whom all the world knew, this gun accompanied 

 me in all my wanderings. It was an excellent arm, and 

 I have shot more than five hundred birds with it alone. 

 Not only on humming-birds, but on larger game, did 

 I try its shooting qualities. For hummers it needed 

 but a taste of powder and a thimbleful of dust shot. 



Not for the collecting of specimens merely was my 

 mission ; I was to obtain all the information possible 

 of the habits of the birds — of their home life. It was 

 in this study of them in their forest retreats that I took 

 keen delight, and considered the shooting of them as 

 a necessary evil to procure their identification. 



In one of my daily rambles for this purpose, I en- 

 tered a gloomy glen in the deep forest. Soon as my 

 eyes became accustomed to the gloom, I espied a 

 humming-bird dancing in the air. There was not a 

 flower in sight, and he did not fly as when in pur- 

 suit of nectar-bearing flowers, but hovered more on 

 suspended wing, darting sidewise, backward and for- 

 ward, with the body in an almost erect position. If 

 through the deep shade a sunbeam slanted athwart 

 the glen, his throat gleamed like a ruby. Now, this 

 fantastic dance was not for pleasure, but for food. I 

 ascertained that at such times they are in pursuit of 



