284 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



This species lives in the West Indies, and in various parts of South 

 America. " It is in great request for the dealers, and thousands are 

 killed annually. No species is so common as this in ornamental cases 

 of humming-birds." Humming-birds are not only used for cabinet- 

 specimens, but for various purposes of embellishment. The feathers 

 are used to make flowers, pictures, and other ornaments. The birds 

 are killed in various ways. Some are sliot ; but they are frequently 

 so injured by this method as to be of little value. By the use of the 

 sarhacane^ or shooting-tube, they can be stunned and taken without 

 much injury. They are sometimes caught in nets uninjured; and 

 occasionally they are taken by putting bird-lime, or other glutinous 

 substance, in flowers which they habitually visit. 



The nest of this species is formed almost entirely of cotton or fine 

 grass, and is thick, compact, and warm, the inside being about an inch 

 in diameter, and the same in depth. It is frequently attached to a 

 leaf, put on the small branches of a rush, or built on the twig of a 

 small bush. Mr. Kirk, residing in the island of Tobago, says : "The 

 ruby-crested humming-birds make their appearance here on the 1st of 

 February. They begin to make their nests about the 10th. I now 

 know (March 1st) of several containing two eggs each; and watched 

 .a bird building one yesterday for nearly an hour. Her manner of con- 

 struction was very ingenious : bringing a pile of small grass or lichen, 

 she commenced upon a small twig about a quarter of an inch in diame- 

 ter, immediately below a large leaf, which entirely covers and conceals 

 the nest from above, the height from the ground being about three 

 feet. After the nest had received two or three of these grasses, she 

 set herself in the centre, and, putting her long, slender beak over the 

 outer edge, seemed to use it and her throat much in the same way as 

 a mason does his trowel, for the purpose of smoothing, rubbing to and 

 fro, and sweeping quite around. Each visit to the nest seemed to oc- 

 cupy only a couple of seconds, and her absence from it not more than 

 two minutes. A few hours after I saw the nest, w^iich had all the 

 appearance of a finished one." 



The sappho comet, or bar-tailed humming-bird [Cometes sparga- 

 nitrus^ Gould), is remarkable for the development and splendid color of 

 the tail of the male bird. The feathers are broad and truncate, and the 

 outer pair five or six inches long, the others decreasing rapidly toward 

 the inner ones. They are of a brilliant reddish orange, with a metallic 

 lustre of the greatest clearness, assuming a greater tinge of red or 

 yellow, according to the direction of the light. The tail is darker at 

 the base and of a lighter or more fiery red toward the extremity. 

 The tip of each feather has a broad black bar, and when the tail is 

 closed these tips appear as five black bars or bands. The upper parts 

 of the head, neck, and body, are of a golden green ; the rump, of a 

 fine madder-red without lustre : the sides of the face and neck are 

 bronzed ; wings, purple-brown ; the throat and breast are of a bright 



