107 



food consisted almost entirely of a small green aphis, found abun- 

 dantly on the West Indian vervain, ( V. stachytarpheta,) a small 

 blue flower that grows in all the dry pastures. Gosse calls the 

 least humming-bird of Jamaica the Vervain Humming-Bird, from 

 its hovering round this plant, but the name would apply equally 

 as w^ell to the present species. I saw nothing in its habits differ- 

 ing from those of the common ruby-throated species, with the 

 exception that it was more quarrelsome in its disposition, chasing 

 the "fighter," as the Tyrannus caudifasciatus is called, whenever 

 it came near him, and that its note is louder and shriller than that 

 of our species and much more frequently uttered. Incubation 

 commences by the 1st of March. I saw three nests of this bird ; 

 one, found on the 3d of March, contained two eggs partly hatched ; 

 a second, April 10th, one egg, and another, in May, two eggs. 

 The nests were all composed of the same materials, principally 

 the cotton from the silk cotton tree, with a few downy masses that 

 looked as if derived from some species of asclepias ; this was felted 

 and matted together, and the outside stuck over with bits of lichen 

 and little dry stalks, or fibres of vegetable matter. One now before 

 me measures .030 in diameter, and .033 in height externally, and 

 the inside .018 in depth and .025 in diameter. The eggs, like 

 those of all others of the family, are two in number, snow-white 

 when blown and sligiitly rosy before, and measure .012 in length 

 by .008 in breadth. 



Description. Adult male — above, green with metallic reflec- 

 tions, slightly golden on the back, and with the tips of some of the 

 feathers in some specimens bluish. The head darker and more 

 sombre. Wings brownish purple, with dull greenish reflections 

 in some lights. Tail dark purple, almost black, also with greenish 

 reflections ; the outer feather on each side with an almost obsolete 

 terminal spot of rufous, the next with the whole of the inner web 

 bright cinnamon, the next with the whole of the inner and the 

 basal half of the outer web of the same color, this color then run- 

 ning nearly to the tip in a diagonal manner, leaving the part next 

 the shaft purple. The basal half of all the shafts, except the two 

 outer, cinnamon. Throat magnificent purple violet, immediately 

 below this a broad gorget of white ; abdomen green mixed wnth 

 rufous ; thighs white ; crissum pale rufous white ; bill and tarsi 

 black ; length, .084 ; to end of claws, .060 ; to end of wings, .086 ; 



