FOOD AND HABITS. 61 



and May that they abound. I suppose I have 

 sometimes seen not fewer than a hundred come 

 successively to rifle the blossoms within the space 

 of half as many yards in the course of a forenoon. 

 They are, however, in no respect gregarious; 

 though three or four may at one moment be ho- 

 vering round the blossoms of the same bush, 

 there is no association ; each is governed by his in- 

 dividual preference, and each attends to his own 

 affairs. It is worthy of remark, that males com- 

 pose by far the greater portion of the individuals 

 observed at this elevation. I do not know why 

 it should be so, but we see very few females 

 there, whereas in the lowlands this sex outnum- 

 bers the other. In March a large number are 

 found to be clad in the livery of the adult male, 

 but without long tail-feathers ; others have the 

 characteristic feathers lengthened, but in various 

 degrees. These are, I have no doubt, males of 

 the preceding season. It is also quite common 

 to find one of the long feathers much shorter 

 than the other, which I account for by conclud- 

 ing that the shorter is replacing one that had 

 been accidentally lost. In their aerial en- 

 counters with each other, a tail-feather is some- 

 times displaced. One day several of these 

 "young bloods" being together, a regular tu- 

 mult ensued, somewhat similar to a sparrow- 

 fight : such twittering, and fluttering, and dart- 

 ings hither and thither! I could not exactly 

 make out the matter, but suspected that it was 



