THE BAR-TAILED HUMMING-BIRD. 



179 



the hill-side of the neighboring country, clothed with indigenous trees and shrubs, also affords 

 it a fit place of abode, whence it descends several times a day to the cultivated plains below, 

 particularly to the fields of maize, pulse, and other leguminous plants ; the rich flowers of 

 the large cacti are also frequently visited, as they afford it a constant and abundant supply of 

 insect food. 



"Soon after their arrival the task of incubation is commenced : and when the summer is 

 over, both the old and the young, actuated as it were by the same impulse, wend their way 

 southward, to return again when the spring has once more gladdened the earth. 



"The nest is a somewhat loose structure, outwardly composed of interlaced vegetable 

 fibres, slight twigs, moss, etc., and frequently lined with soft hairs like those of the viscacha, 



~i 



SAPPHO COMET. Sparganura sappfio. 



with the lower portion prolonged considerably below the bottom of the cup-shaped interior, 

 which is about an inch and a half in diameter and an inch in depth ; the total length of the 

 nest averaging from two and a half to three inches. The nest is placed in situations similar to 

 those selected for the same purpose by the spotted fly-catcher, namely, against the sides of 

 the walls, supported or entirely sustained by any hanging root or twig that may be best 

 adapted to afford it security ; the part of the nest next the wall is much thicker, but of a 

 looser texture than the similar portion of the true structure. The eggs are two in number, 

 oblong in form, of a pure white, and about half an inch in length by about five-sixteenths of 

 an inch in breadth. 



"The difficulty of shooting these birds is inconceivably great, from the extraordinary 

 turns and evolutions they make when on the wing ; at one instant darting headlong into a 

 flower, at the next describing a circle in the air with such rapidity, that the eye, unable to 



