On some West-Indian Humming- bit' ds. 495 



wliite throat, irregular black patch on the middle of the fore 

 neck, and whitish-buff underparts, boldly barred with black on 

 the fore neck and breast. It appears to me equally certain 

 that the Formosan example with which it is compared is 

 T. blanfordi, which belongs to quite a different section of the 

 genus. We read that the throat is greyish buff ; the rest of 

 the underparts reddish ochraceous, deeper and richer on the 

 fore neck, breast, and flanks ; the middle of the fore neck and 

 breast almost unmarked, Avhile the sides of the neck and breast 

 are marked with black lunules. Moreover, the upper parts 

 have the buff markings rounder and more drop-like, and the 

 black markings are less pronounced. This description agrees 

 perfectly with T. blanfordi, which is common in China, but 

 has never been recorded from Formosa, though there seems to 

 be no reason why it should not occur there. — W. R. O. G.] 



XLV. — Notes on some of the West-Indian Humming-birds. 

 By Geo. E. Lodge, F.Z.S. 



The following notes on the habits of a few species of 

 Humming-birds, made during a visit last winter to some of 

 the West-Indian Islands, will, I hope, not be altogether un- 

 interesting. In these islands Humming-birds are very fairly 

 plentiful, but in no great number of species, most of the 

 islands having only three or four, with the exception of 

 Tobago, which has six or seven, and Trinidad, which has a 

 good many more. But at the last island I made no stay. 



The chief thing that occurred to me while making these 

 notes was the fact that drawings of Humming-birds in books 

 of natural history are almost always untrue to nature, which 

 probably arises from the fact that the birds have never been 

 seen alive by the artists. The stuffed Humming-birds one 

 sees in museums are even worse, being gross caricatures, 

 both in shape and attitude, and even the magnificent Gould 

 collection fails entirely in exhibiting the subjects in natui'al 

 positions. 



My stay at each of the islands visited was generally of 



SER. VIT. — VOL. II. 2n 



