2 BIRDS OF Lp PLATA 
avenues of large acacia trees, about a thousand 
in all, and as long as the blossoms lasted the little 
glittering birds were to be seen all over the place, 
in almost every tree, revelling in the fragrant sweet- 
ness; but no sooner were the flowers faded than 
they were gone, and thereafter two or three pairs 
only remained to breed and spend the summer months 
in the plantation. All these birds were of one species 
—the Glittering Humming-bird, but on going a few 
miles from home to the marsh and forest on the low 
shores of the Plata river I would find the other two 
species. I spent a summer, bird-watching, in a 
herdsman’s hut in the marshy forest and used to go 
out at sunset to a small open space overgrown with 
viper’s-bugloss in flower. There is no flower the 
Humming-bird likes so well, and he is most busy 
feeding just before dark. Here, standing among the 
flowers, I would watch the shining little birds coming 
and going, each bird spending a minute or two 
sucking honey, then vanishing back into the shadowy 
trees, and from fifty to a hundred of them would 
always be in sight all around me at atime. Here 
all three species were feeding together; but I was 
familiar with the habits of only one, the bird I 
describe here. 
The Glittering Humming-bird appears in the 
vicinity of Buenos Ayres in September, and later 
in the spring is found everywhere on the pampas 
where there are plantations, but it is never seen on 
the treeless plains. Its sudden appearance in con- 
