Notes on Out-of-the-Way Birds. i35 



even hardier than the Purple Sunbird, to say nothing of the 

 other, there is nothing to despair about, and when this species is 

 fully understood we can proceed to others with more confidence. 



I fed my Sunbirds on diluted condensed milk mixed with 

 crushed biscuit and powdered hard-boiled egg-yolk, but m the 

 light of the subsequent experience of others, I should recommend 

 a mixture of honey, condensed milk, and Mellin's food, to be 

 given in a shallow covered vessel with holes in the cover; and 

 this ought to serve for Humming-birds also. Aphides and spiders 

 should of course be provided wherever possible, though I cannot 

 say that the Zoo Humming-birds specimens cared much for those 

 given to them — they may have become inveterate syrup-bibbers! 



The unidentified Humming-bird imported by Mr. C. Harris 

 in the autumn of 1910, however, was actually reared on honey 

 from the nest, and anyone who reads Gosse's account in the Birds 

 of Jamaica of his rather blundering attempt to keep the splendid 

 Aithurus polyttniis oi that island on syrup only will see that that 

 species has a resistent constitution, and would probably do well 

 with better food and more careful treatment. Sunlight, judging 

 from my observations on the Zoo birds, is not indispeusible to 

 Hummers, and is even shunned by some when wild, such as the 

 magnificent Crimson Topaz {JFopaza pella) of Tropical America, 

 which haunts the forest shades, while some species, such as 

 Selasphorus rnfus in North-west America, and Eustephanus 

 gaUfitus in Tierra del Fuego, range into climates far more cold 

 and bleak than any inhabited by Sunbirds. 



To pass to very different groups of birds, in dealing with 

 my especial favourites the Waterfowl, I have also followed as a 

 rule the possibility of avoiding familiar types for export, the 

 chief exception I made being in favour of the Pigmy Goose or 

 Cotton-teal i^Ncttapus coromaiideliaiius) above mentioned ; the 

 difficulties in keeping this bird I have dealt with previously 

 [Avic. Mag., VII. 1901, p. 129) ; I may summarize them here by 

 saying that they consist simply in the fact that the bird is very 

 groggy on its legs and at the same time foolishly eager to climb 

 up wire-netting, so that its enclosure on first capture if small, 

 must be arranged to obviate this. Cotton-teal should always 

 have plenty of water and be kept under netting, unpinioned, as 



