West-Indian Humming-birds. 501 



To see a sight like this it is worth braving all the terrors of 

 the Atlantic. 



It is beautiful to watch the sports of these fairy birds, and 

 it seems absolutely barbarous that thousands upon thousands 

 of Humming-birds should be slain for unscientific purposes. 

 In the cause of science and art one has no compunction in 

 killing specimens : the world at large benefits therefrom. I 

 am glad to say that now all the West-Indian islands under 

 the British rule have strict laws as to the preservation of 

 birds — all the brightly-plumaged birds being absolutely pro- 

 tected all the year round, while other species are protected 

 during their breeding-seasons. But for scientific purposes 

 one can always obtain a special permit to shoot, and we 

 had no difficulty in obtaining this permit from the various 

 Governors of the islands we visited, with one exception, of 

 which in its place. 



1 see that Gould says of the Mango Humming-bird that 

 the specimens with steely blue-green throats are the female 

 birds, but he does not say that this has been proved by dis- 

 section. Two females that I skinned and dissected have not 

 a trace of any metallic colour on the throat, and not much 

 of the purple glow down the sides of the neck, and a male 

 bird was exactly the same in colour. One of these birds 

 had a mass of minute black insects in its crop. I put this 

 mass into water, and on examination through a strong 

 maguifying-glass it appeared to be composed entirely of 

 very small black ants, each having two pairs of longish wings. 

 There were several dozens of them. That the birds do suck 

 nectar out of flowers is true enough, but they find their staff 

 of life in insects. One of my specimens, being liung up by 

 the foot before skinning to keep it out of the way of ants, 

 dropped some clear liquid from its beak. I tasted one of 

 these drops as it hung from the end of its mandibles, nnd it 

 was quite sweet : evidently flower-nectar. 



This species has a very long neck, which is quite apparent 

 when the bird is hovering for its food. When at rest it 

 often sits as bunched-up as does the Long-tail, but not 



