496 Mr. G. E. Lodge on some 



only two or three weeks' duration, with the exception o£ 

 Jamaica, so that I had not much time to devote to Humming- 

 birds alone, as I was collecting ornithological and entomo- 

 logical specimens generally, and also spent a considerable 

 portion of my time in landscape-sketching. In the latter 

 pursuit, however, I generally had with me either a gun or 

 a butterfly-net ; but as I was shooting and skinning entirely 

 single-handed, the series of specimens that I brought back 

 with me was not extensive. 



The islands that I made any stay at were Jamaica, Do- 

 minica, Tobago, and Grenada, and I propose treating of the 

 species of Humming-birds found in these islands in the order 

 named. 



Jamaica was the first island that 1 visited, and as I stayed 

 some six weeks, I had ample opportunities of studying the 

 habits of the three species found there. These are Aithurus 

 polytmus, Lampornis mango, and Mellisuga minima, the two 

 former being peculiar to Jamaica, while the third is re- 

 ported to be only found besides in the adjacent island of 

 San Domingo. 



The favourite haunts of the beautiful A. polytmus are among 

 the clumps of rose-apple trees, which usually grow some 

 20 feet in height, but when growing by the sides of rivers 

 are considerably loftier, probably often 40 feet in height. I 

 think I never failed to find some of these birds in such 

 situations. In foliage this tree is very dark in colour 

 (excepting the young outside shoots, which are of a lovely rose- 

 pink and golden green), and it is not at all unlike a mango, 

 but the leaves are longer and narrower, and at the time of 

 year I was there (January and February) the trees were full 

 of their beautiful spring-like blossoms, of a pale delicate 

 yellow colour, a mass of long delicate stamens spraying out 

 in all directions. These flowers are the delight of the Long- 

 tailed Humming-bird, and here he may be watched at leisure 

 all day long. His presence is often detected before he is 

 seen by the sharp, high-pitched, whirring noise of his wings, 

 as he dashes from one blossom to another, but when hoveriug 

 for his food the humming noise produced by his wings is in 



