West-Indian Humming-birds. 505 



blossoms, singing its little song with great glee. Not much 

 of a song certaiul}^ : about three little squeaky, feeble notes, 

 repeated over and over again. 



I did not obtain a single specimen of this species. While 

 at Constant Spring I was mostly butterfly-hunting, and the 

 few shots I had at these birds were with sand, which proved 

 futile. I quite expected when leaving this district to And 

 them common everywhere else, but never got another chance 

 of shooting them. The colour of this bird is quite plain : 

 dull green above and dull white below, without any of the 

 splendid metallic colours so generally characteristic of this 

 interesting and beautiful order of birds. 



After leaving Jamaica we went to Dominica, stopping a 

 week end at Barbados to change steamers. I saw two species 

 of Humming-birds in Barbados, viz. Eidampis hohsericeus 

 and one of the little crested species : either Bellona cristata 

 or B. exilis; I do not know which, as, the birds being always 

 above me, I was unable to see the colour of their crests. 

 There were several of these feeding among the blossoms that 

 grew on a tree close to the Marine Hotel. I do not know 

 the tree, but in general appearance it was not unlike an 

 acacia and had white (or cream-coloured) blossoms, which 

 smelt very sweet. On this tree were always other small 

 birds feeding, and the Humming-birds took no notice of 

 them and in no way disturbed them, so far as I could see. 

 One E. hohsericeus here was feeding among the grasses, 

 evidently picking up insects from the beads that had gone 

 to seed. 



Dominica has four species of Humming-birds — Eidampis 

 hohsericeus, E. jugularis, Belhna exilis, and Thalurania 

 loagleri. Here the little B. exdis is exceedingly common — 

 much the most plentiful of the lot, M'hile the Thalurania is 

 the least common, or, at any rate, very much more local in 

 its distribution, as it is found only up in the high mountains. 

 I do not think I saw it at a less elevation than 1000 feet ; 

 but this altitude is guess-work on my part, as I had no 

 means of finding the height above sea-level. At any rate 

 this bird is found up in regions where one is among the 



