SALLfi'S HERMIT HUMMING-BIRD. 239 



In the male, the upper surface is of a bronze green. The gorget is of a fiery red, and 

 as tlie featliers on each side are longer than those in the centre, it necessarily projects 

 from the neck. Below the gorget is a band of white marked with buff, and the wings are 

 purple brown. The central feathers of the tail are brownish black edged with red, and 

 the remaining feathers are brownish black on their outer webs, and reddish rust on the 

 inner webs. The under surface of the tail is a rusty red. The female is duller in her 

 colouring, and the gorget is shorter and of a whitish grey spotted with brown. The flanks 

 are butt' and the tail-feathers are not so pointed as in the male. 



There are several species of Flame-bearers, among which may be mentioned the RuFUS 

 FlAME-beaeer (Seldsphorus rufus), a bird which was originally discovered by Captain 

 Cook. It is an inhabitant of Mexico, and is also found on the Pacific side of Northern 

 America in the summer time, returning to Mexico in the winter. Tliis species is well 

 described by ]\Ir. Nuttal, whose account is quoted by Audubon. 



" We began to meet with this species near the Blue Mountains of the Columbia River in 

 the autumn, as we proceeded to the coast. These were all young birds, and were not very 

 easily distinguished from those of the common species of the same age. 



We now for the first time (April 16) saw the males in numbers, darting, buzzing, and 

 squeaking in the usual manner of their tribe : but when engaged in collecting its accus- 

 tomed sweets in all the energy of life, it seemed like a breathing gem, a magic carbuncle 

 of glowing fire, stretching out its glorious ruff as if to emulate the sun itself in splendour. 

 Towards the close of May the females were sitting, at which time the males were uncom- 

 monly quarrelsome and vigilant, darting out at once as I approached the tree, probably 

 near the nest, looking like an angry coal of brilliant fire, passing within very little of my 

 face, returning several times to the attack, sailing and darting with the utmost velocity, at 

 the same time uttering a curious reverberating sharp bleat, somewhat similar to the 

 quivering twang of a dead twig, yet also so much like the real bleat of some small quad- 

 ruped, that for some time I searched the ground instead of the air for the actor in the 

 scene. 



At other times the males were seen darting high up in the air, and whirling about each 

 other in great anger and with much velocity. After these manoeuvres, the aggressor 

 returned to the same dead twig, where for days he resolutely took his station, displaying 

 the utmost courage and angry vigilance. The angry hissing or bleating note seems some- 

 thing like loht' t' i ( ( sli vee, tremulously uttered as it whirls and sweeps through the air, 

 acconqjanied also by something like the whirr of the night hawk. On the 29th of May 

 I found a nest in a forked branch of the Nootka bramble [Rubus Nutkanus). The female 

 was sitting upon two eggs of the same shape and colour as those of the common species, 

 Trocliilus coluhris. The nest also was similar, but some^vhat deeper. As I approached, 

 the female came hovering round the nest, and soon after, when all was still, she resumed 

 her place contentedly." 



The nest of this bird measures, according to Audubon's description, two inches and a 

 quarter in height and an inch and three-quarters in breadth at the upper part, and is 

 composed of mosses, lichens, and feathers, woven together with delicate vegetable fibres. 

 The lining is very soft cotton. Another observer. Dr. Townsend, compares the curious 

 note of this bird to the sound which is produced by the rubbing together of two branches 

 during a high wind. 



The birds which compose the genus Phaethornis are remarkable for the very long and 

 beautifully graduated tail, all the feathers being long and pointed, and the two central far 

 exceeding the rest. The two sexes are mostly alike, both in the colour and shape of their 

 plumage and in size. These birds inhabit Venezuela and the Carracas, being generally 

 found in the richest district of those localities, where the flowers blossom most abundantly. 

 All the Hermits buUd a very curious and beautiful nest, of a long fimnel-like form 

 tapermg to a slender point, and woven with the greatest neatness to some delicate twig or 

 pendent leaf by means of certain spiders' webs. The material of which it is made is 

 silky cotton fibre, intermixed with a woolly kind of furze, and bound together with 

 spider-web. Our present example is Sally's Hekmit. 



