Mr. 0. Salvin on the Humming-birds of Guatemala. 259 



southwards from Hudson's Bay alone to the warmer latitudes. 

 I cannot form an opinion of the comparative numbers to the 

 westward, that is to say, of the Geese that leave the Arctic coast 

 and wend their way straight to their winter quarters without 

 touching the Bay at all ; but supposing it to equal the flight of 

 the body already mentioned, we shall then have 720,000, or 

 perhaps say 800,000 Geese leaving the coasts east of the Rocky 

 Mountains for their places of hybernation : — the Brant Geese 

 are not included. This may be supposed much underneath the 

 true estimate, yet I would not wish to give a greater ; for although 

 the swarms of Geese passing appear at times prodigious, yet, like 

 many other scattered objects, when they come to be collected and 

 counted, they become subject to a moderate figure. Say that 

 Geese fly about a yard apart : this w^ould make a winged string of 

 life 450 miles in length; and suppose the rate of flight was 

 40 miles per hour, and the line led by one going straight south, 

 they would take eleven hours in passing any given object. 



Michipicoton, Dec. 6th, 1859. 



XXXII. — Notes on the Humming-birds of Guatemala. 

 By OsBERT Salvin, M.A., F.Z.S. 



The following notes relate to species of Humming-birds observed 

 in Guatemala, at Duefias, Coban, and Salama^ during the months 

 of August, September, October and November 1859. 



The references to each species will be found in the previous 

 papers on the Ornithology of Central America published in this 

 Journal. 



As I have collected many examples of the several species of 

 Humming-birds, I take the opportunity of illustrating, by actual 

 figures, the ratio in numbers the males bear to the females, and 

 give under each separate species that ratio, as shown by the 

 specimens before me. 



It may be from not having hit upon the localities for the 

 opposite sex, that I have found one, be it male or female, usually 

 largely predominating; yet it seems somewhat strange that the 

 localities in which I have worked should have been, with few 

 exceptions, those in which the males most abound. I will not 



