336 



Ereaurw cf Natural 



rious shrub, the blossoms of which, though 

 presenting little beauty in form or hue, are 

 pre-eminently attractive to the Long-tailed 

 Humming-bird. These bushes are at no 

 part of the year out of blossom, the scarlet 

 berries appearing at all seasons on the same 

 stalk as the flowers. And here at any time 

 one may with tolerable certainty calculate on 

 finding these very lovely birds. But it is in 

 March, April, and May that they abound : 

 I suppose I have sometimes seen not fewer 

 than a hundred come successively to rifle 

 the blossoms within the space of half as 

 many yards in the course of a forenoon. 

 They are, however, in no respect gregarious ; 

 though three or four may be at one moment 

 hovering round the blossoms of the same 

 bush, there is no association ; each is go- 

 verned by his individual preference, and 

 each attends to his own affairs." 



" The Humming-birds in Jamaica do not 

 confine themselves to any particular season 

 for nidification. In almost every month of 

 the year I have either found, or had brought 

 to me, the nests of Polytmus in occupation. 

 Still, as far as my experience goes, they are 

 most numerous in June ; while Mr. Hill 

 considers January as the most normal period. 

 It is not improbable that two broods are 

 reared in a season. In the latter part of 

 February, a friend showed me a nest of 

 this species in a singular situation, but which 

 I afterwards found to be quite in accorda: 



produce a reddish tinge, from the thinness of 

 the shell." 



BKMAl E LONG-T 



HDMMINQ-BIRD, 



All the Humming-birds have more or 



j. mierwarus lounu 10 IHJ quite in accordance less the habit when in flight of pausing in , 

 with its usual habits : it was composed the air, and throwing the body and tail into ; 

 wholly of moss, and suspended to one of the j rapid and odd contortions ; this seems to be 

 fibres, not thicker than whipcord, belong- i most the case with Mango, but perhaps is 

 ing to the root of a tree, and contained two j more observable in Polytmus from the effect 

 eggs. Mr. Gosse goes on describing, in his ^ that such motions have on the beautiful long 

 peculiarly pleasant manner, his further j feathers of the tail. That the object of these 

 operations in endeavouring to become ac- ! quick turns is the capture of insects I am 

 quainted with every particular respecting sure, having watched one thus engaged pretty 

 the nidification and general habits of this close to me ; I drew up and observed it 

 interesting species. We select one example, carefully, and distinctly saw the minuteflies 

 " On the 12th of November, we took, in | i u the air, which it pursued and caught, and 

 Bluefields morass, the nest of a Polytmus, \ heard repeatedly the snapping of the beak, 

 containing two eggs, one of which had the [ My presence scarcely disturbed it, if at all. 

 chick considerably advanced, the other was * * * When I left England, I had laid 

 freshly laid. The nest was placed on a myself out for the attempt to bring these > 

 hanging twig of a black -mangrove tree, the radiant creatures alive to this country : and ; 

 twig passing perpendicularly through the ; after a little acquaintance with the Jamaican j 

 side, and out at the bottom. It is now be- ! species, Polytmus seemed, from its beauty, [ 

 fore me. It is a very compact cup, one inch its abundance, its size, its docility, and its \ 

 and three quarters deep without, and one mountain habitat, to be the species at once ! 

 inch deep within ; the sides about a quarter most likely to succeed, .and most worthy of 

 of an inch thick, the inner margin a little ' the effort. My expectations were disap- 

 over-arching, so as to narrow the opening : ' pointed : yet as the efforts themselves made 

 the total diameter at top, one inch and a me more familiar with their habits, the 

 half ; one inch in the clear. It is mainly : reader, I trust, will pardon some prolixity 

 'ery closely pressed, : of detail in the narration of these attempts." 



[We have already so fully availed ourselves 



composed of silk cotton vcij tiusci^ yicoacu, 

 mixed with the still more glossy cotton of 



an asclepias, particularly round the edge ; \ of Mr. Gosse's labours, that we beg to refer, 

 the seed remaining attached to some of the for further information, to the work itself; 

 filaments. On the outside the whole struc- and we take the opportunity of assuring 

 ture is quite covered with spider's web, him, at the same time, that his readers will 

 crossed and recrosscd in every direction, and be far more inclined to applaud than to con- 

 made to adhere by some viscous substance, ! demn what he is pleased to call his " pro- 

 evidently applied after the web was placed, lixity." We have personally derived both 

 probably saliva. Little bits of pale green pleasure and instruction from its perusal ; 

 lichen, and fragments of thin laminated ! and we trust that many who consult our 

 bark, are stuck here and there on the outside, | volume will be induced, from the extracts 

 by means of the webs having been passed j they have seen, to become possessed of "The 

 over them. The eggs are long-oval, pure i Birds of Jamaica ; " for a more delightful 

 white, save that, when fresh, the contents specimen of descriptive ornithology never 



