2 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 



avenues of large acacia trees, about a thousand 

 in all, and as long as the blossoms lasted the little 

 glittering birds were to be seen all over the place, 

 in almost every tree, revelling in the fragrant sweet- 

 ness ; but no sooner were the flowers faded than 

 they were gone, and thereafter two or three pairs 

 only remained to breed and spend the summer months 

 in the plantation* All these birds were of one species 

 the Glittering Humming-bird, but on going a few 

 miles from home to the marsh and forest on the low 

 shores of the Plata river I would find the other two 

 species* I spent a summer, bird-watching, in a 

 herdsman's hut in the marshy forest and used to go 

 out at sunset to a small open space overgrown with 

 viper's-bugloss in flower. There is no flower the 

 Humming-bird likes so well, and he is most busy 

 feeding just before dark. Here, standing among the 

 flowers, I would watch the shining little birds coming 

 and going, each bird spending a minute or two 

 sucking honey, then vanishing back into the shadowy 

 trees, and from fifty to a hundred of them would 

 always be in sight all around me at a time* Here 

 all three species were feeding together ; but I was 

 familiar with the habits of only one, the bird I 

 describe here. 



The Glittering Humming-bird appears in the 

 vicinity of Buenos Ayres in September, and later 

 in the spring is found everywhere on the pampas 

 where there are plantations, but it is never seen on 

 the treeless plains. Its sudden appearance in con- 



