Dr. W. Jameson and Mr. L. Fraser on Humming-birds. 399 



his pal Dick collected a ton of feathers last year. To do this 

 they must have killed 56,000 birds; and yet they say their 

 numbers do not seem to decrease. The birds come back to the 

 islands again on the 23rd of November to lay. They lay but 

 one egg, and generally on the day or the day after they arrive. 

 The sealers collect a good many for their use ; and when the 

 young birds are nearly full-grown, they attack them again for 

 the sake of the oil with which the old birds feed them. They 

 thrust their hands into the hole, pull out the young bird by the 

 head, kill it by squeezing it; and holding it up by the legs, the oil 

 nms out of its beak. This oil is very clean and pure, burns 

 well, and sells at Launceston at four shillings per gallon. When 

 the young birds are full-grown they are very fat. The men then 

 pull them out of their holes, split them, and salt them. It is 

 rather dangerous work catching them in this way; for many 

 venomous snakes dwell in the holes, and are sometimes seized 

 and pulled out instead of a bird. 



XLI. — Notes on some of the Humming-hirds of Ecuador figured 

 in Mr. Gould's Monograph. By Dr. William Jameson, of 

 Quito, and Louis Eraser, Corr. Memb. Zool. Soc. 



1. Oreotrochilus CHiMBORAZo (Gould, Mon. pt. 2). 



This bird is not found below the elevation of 14,000 feet; but 

 vegetation does not cease here, as M. Bourcier seems to say — 

 for how then could these birds live ? It is never seen perching 

 on the extremity of the Chuquiraga [Chuquiraga insignis), as re- 

 presented in Mr. Gould's plate, but always clinging to the sides 

 of the flowers of that plant. It is very abundant in its locality. 



2. Oreotrochilus pichincha (Gould, Mon. pt. 2). 



It is impossible that any species can be more common than 

 O. chimborazo ; but this bird is more attainable on account of 

 the proximity of Pichincha to Quito. Like the former, it is not 

 found below the altitude of 14,000 feet. 



3. Lesbia AMARYLLIS (Gould, Mou. pt. 7). 

 This bird is only found on the Table-land. 



4. Pataggna gigas (Gould, Mon. pt. 9). 



