86



Mr. F. E. Blaauw,



HUMMING BIRDS IN THEIR NATIVE

HAUNTS.


By F. E. Blaauw.


In 1911 I made a trip to South America, landing in Buenos

Ayres, after having spent a day on the way at Rio de Janeiro, where

I had seen wild sugar birds in the wonderful Botanical Gardens of

that town.


From Beunos Ayres I took train across the pampas to Puente

del Inca, high up in the Andes. From Puente del Inca I rode over

4000 metres high cumhre or pass, where “ El Christo de los Andes’’

watches over the frontier line between the Argentine Republic and

Chile, and having descended on the Chilian side I retook the train

where it leaves the tunnel at Canicol^s, going on in it until it reached

Santiago, the capital of Chile.


In Santiago there is in the middle of the town a rock or small

mountain, which has been planted as a public garden and is called

the Santa Lucia. On the Santa Lucia I was destined to make the

acquaintance of the old-gold-capped humming-bird (Eustephcinus

galeritus.)


The Santa Lucia is at one end of the wide central boulevard

or ’Avenida” which traverses the town, and from where one has

occasional glimpses of the snowclad Andes. Facing the Avenida

gorgeous stairways of cut stone lead up to the Santa Lucia, hut in

other places little winding stairs cut in the living rock and overhung

by luxurious vegetation give a more private access to its heights.


One morning, during my stay at Santiago, I took one of these

little paths, and at about half way, following a stone balustrade,

the stairs formed an angle. In that angle a thin stream of water

splashed into a shallow stone basin, whilst Eucalyptus and Cypress

trees were growing near. The stone balustrade was overgrown with

scarlet geraniums and some fuchsias formed the underwood. As

I was leaning over the balustrade looking at the dowers I suddenly

heard a shrill scream, and behold in front of me hovered in mid-air

not four feet away from me an old-gold-capped green humming-bird.

It remained in the air for a while, then suddenly dropped into the

shallow water of the basin and began to splash to its heart’s content,



