1792 



THE PICARIAN BIRDS 



The True 

 Hermits 



helmet, and is attached, as it were, by the point of the crest to the stalk. It is a 

 fleshy mass of a deep crimson color, and the cavity of the calyx extends in a tortu- 

 ous manner downward toward the attachment of the flower to the stalk. ' ' 



The members of the genus Pliaethornis are dull-plumaged birds, of a 

 fair size generally, and remarkable for their wedge-shaped tails, the 

 feathers of which are mostly tipped with white or buff. The bill is 

 long and curved, but not to the same extent as in the last genus. Sixteen species 

 of hermits are known, ranging from Mexico, throughout Central America to South- 

 ern Brazil and Bolivia. The nest is an elongated structure, placed at the extremity 

 of one side of long-pointed leaves, as if for protection from the attacks of monkeys 

 and other animals. The hermits are plentifully represented in Brazil, where they 

 inhabit the gloomy forests, feeding chiefly on insects, instead of courting the sun- 

 shine and sucking the honey from flowers. Mr. Stolzmann states that in Peru the 

 gray-throated hermit (P. griseigularis} , instead of inhabiting the hot and moist 

 forests, like the other species of the genus, frequents dry and arid valleys, where it 

 seeks the densest thickets and sometimes banana plantations. While this observer 

 was passing near some thick bushes, he was once arrested by the sound of a very 

 shrill note, repeated at intervals, which struck him at first as the utterance of a 



tanager, and he searched in vain 

 to find the bird. Baffled, he at 

 last lay down at the bottom of 

 the thicket, and after some 

 minutes discovered a tiny bird 

 perched on a branch quite close 

 to the ground. Here was the 

 meeting place of the hermits, 

 and the observer at length found 

 four or five of these birds seated 

 at a short distance from each 

 other, at intervals uttering their 

 whistle, while sometimes one 

 would take a short flight round, 

 and then hasten back to the 

 same place. Subsequently he 

 heard the birds on several 

 occasions in the same thicket, 



uttering their characteristic cry. At another place exactly the same curious habits 

 were observed in an allied species (P. superdliosus}. Mr. Stolzmann also says 

 that the hermits often come in front of an intruder, and remain suspended in the 

 air, examining him all the time with marked curiosity. 



In the single species of the genus Dodmastes we meet with the 



bill Hum- most ex treme development of bill among the humming birds, since it 



ming Bird * s here equal to the length of the whole bird, measuring, at least, as 



much as four inches. The home of this bird is in the Andes, from 



Venezuela and Colombia to Peru; and the long bill is specially developed to enable 



PRETRE'S HERMIT. 



