IIUMMEllS. 289 



river. The elevated valleys of the Ancles are their favorite 

 home. There are about four hundred known species of 

 hummers, all of wliich belong to the Americas, and, with 

 the exception of about half a dozen, are confined to the 

 southern continent. They are frequently found as far 

 south as Tierra del Fuego. Their chosen habitat is the 

 zone of vegetation which lies just below the paramos of 

 the Cordilleras. Those living in the shade of the forest 

 of the Amazonian Valley are destitute of that brilliancy 

 of coloration which characterizes the hummers of the high 

 slopes of the Andes. They probably feed but little upon 

 the nectar of flowers, but frequent them for the insects 

 there found. Like otlier fissirostral birds, they frequently 

 catch insects in the air. The full beauty of the hummer 

 is only displayed when it is upon the wing, flitting in the 

 bright sunlight, when every change of position gives bril- 

 liant metallic flashes from its irisated breast. 



From the playas, or sand-bars of the river, we obtained 

 large quantities of turtles' eggs, which served a good pur- 

 pose, as our stock of provisions brought from Quito was 

 becoming much reduced. On approaching a playa which 

 promised to aftbrd eggs, ovir Indians would cry, '■''Lulun, lu- 

 lunP'' " eggs, eggs ! " and, pulling vigorously for the island, 

 we would soon be running over the hot sand, each with a 

 stick, which he would thrust into every suspicious-looking 

 depression, the nest being discovered in this waj'. It was 

 with a satisfaction nearly akin to our boyish pleasure of 

 hunting hens' nests in the hay-loft, that, after digging 

 through a foot or eighteen inches of loose sand, we would 

 discover the pile of round, white eggs, stowed away to the 

 number of eighty or one hundred and twenty ; and then 

 roll them out in handfuls upon the sand. The turtle 

 which deposits these eggs does not exceed two feet in 

 length, attaining a weight of about eighty pounds. 



These playas frequently afibrded us stopping-places for 

 If. 



