318 TROPICAL NATURE 



sweets, in all the energy of life, it seemed like a breathing 

 gem, a magic carbuncle of flaming fire, stretching out its 

 glorious ruff as if to emulate the sun itself in splendour." 

 The Sappho Comet, whose long forked tail barred with 

 crimson and black renders it one of the most imposing of 

 humming-birds, is abundant in many parts of the Andes ; 

 and Mr. Bonelli tells us that the difficulty of shooting them 

 is very great from the extraordinary turns and evolutions 

 they make when on the wing ; at one instant darting head- 

 long into a flower, at the next describing a circle in the air 

 with such rapidity that the eye, unable to follow the move- 

 ment, loses sight of the bird until it again returns to the 

 flower which at first attracted its attention. Of the little 

 Vervain humming-bird of Jamaica, Mr. Gosse writes : "I 

 have sometimes watched with much delight the evolutions of 

 this little species at the Moringa-tree. 1 When only one is 

 present, he pursues the round of the blossoms soberly enough. 

 But if two are at the tree, one will fly off, and suspend 

 himself in the air a few yards distant ; the other presently 

 starts off to him, and then, without touching each other, they 

 mount upwards with strong rushing wings, perhaps for five 

 hundred feet. They then separate, and each starts diagonally 

 towards the ground like a ball from a rifle, and, wheeling 

 round, comes up to the blossoms again as if it had not moved 

 away at all. The figure of the smaller humming-birds on the 

 wing, their rapidity, their wavering course, and their whole 

 manner of flight, are entirely those of an insect." Mr. Bates 

 remarks that on the Amazons, during the cooler hours of the 

 morning and from four to six in the afternoon, humming- 

 birds are to be seen whirring about the trees by scores ; their 

 motions being unlike those of any other birds. They dart to 

 and fro so swiftly that the eye can scarcely follow them, and 

 when they stop before a flower it is only for a few moments. 

 They poise themselves in an unsteady manner, their wings 

 moving with inconceivable rapidity, probe the flower, and 

 then shoot off to another part of the tree. They do not 

 proceed in that methodical manner which bees follow, taking 



1 Sometimes called the horse-radish tree. It is the Moringa pterygosperma, 

 a native of the East Indies, but commonly cultivated in Jamaica. It has 

 yellow flowers. 



