West-Indian Humming-birds. 497 



a much lower key and not very loud. The sharp whir of 

 wings just mentioned is produced only by the male bird, his 

 mate flying about silently, except when hovering ; neither 

 did I notice it with any other species that I came across. 



During a walk through the celebrated Fern Gully, which 

 is halfway between Moneague and Oclio Rios, on the north 

 coast, the presence of A. polyimus was very apparent in certain 

 places. I saw few specimens, indeed, except when a bird might 

 fly over the road from one densely-clad forest hillside to the 

 other, but I was continually hearing the unmistakable sharp 

 whirring of their wings. 



Both male and female seem to be very pugnacious ; at any 

 rate they are both very fond of chasing the opposite sex. The 

 male bird, too, is unremitting in his attacks on any other small 

 bird that happens to come and hunt on the same tree ; and 

 I have seen one dash off" from a rose-apple tree and chase 

 away a harmless little hen bird that was busily feeding 

 among some flowers close to the ground, 20 yards away from 

 the tree on which he had been sitting. But among their 

 own sex they seem to be quite amicably disposed, several of 

 them often being seen hunting for their minute prey among 

 the blossoms of the same tree, without interfering at all 

 one with another. Perhaps they may be more pugnaciously 

 inclined towards their own sex in the breeding-season — if, 

 indeed, there is a regular breeding-season for this species, 

 which Gosse seems to doubt in the charming descriptions of 

 this species in his ' Birds of Jamaica.' 



I had no luck in finding any nests here, although I found 

 the beginning of one on Feb. 2nd. I was sketching the 

 positions of a hen A. pohjtmus and a Lampoimis mango (Mango 

 Humming-bird), which were on the same tree (a guava, I 

 think), when I noticed the A. pohjtmus seemed very anxious 

 and fidgety ; she kept coming and perching on twigs very 

 close to me, and then dashing off and trying to drive the 

 Mango away. However, she presently came with some 

 cottony stuft' in her beak, which she placed on a horizontal 

 twig underneath some large leaves. On investigation there 

 was found to be quite a little platform-like lump of cotton, 



2 N 2 



