HOME OF THE HUMMING BIRDS. 



Ill 



vals, and was at last rewarded by a distant call. 

 Throwing into my voice all the seductiveness possible, 

 I succeeded in attracting a trogon to the valley ; but 

 it was some time 

 before I discov- 

 ered it, as the 

 notes of the tro- 

 gon are in a meas- 

 ure ventriloquial, 

 in common with 

 the voices of many 

 other birds. It 

 has the quality of 

 seeming afar off when it is 

 quite near, and while I was 

 looking for the bird it was 

 sitting quietly over my head, 

 replying to my every whistle. 

 I did not want to shoot 

 the bird, only to enliven the 

 somberness of the vale by a 

 little color, and so I whistled 

 again until there were finally 

 many trogons about me, which, 

 seeing that I would do them 

 no harm, lingered among the 

 tree ferns, and kept* me com- 

 pany all the day. While watching the birds that came 

 in response to my calls, and walking slowly along the 

 edge of the stream, I got a bad fall, my attention be- 

 ing fixed upon the treetops instead of the earth. 



Sicklebill Humming Birds 

 and nest. 



