292 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



servations go, this is something unusual for this species, 

 which usually descends towards the earth only in dull, rainy 

 weather in pursuit of insects driven lower by the humid 

 atmosphere. If the birds were to remain on the island dur- 

 ing the summer, they could find an abundance of suitable 

 nesting places in the cliffs, either 011 the shore or on the 

 side of the table-land where the small cypress grove stands. 



LIST OF SPECIMENS. 



2581. Ovaries, small. 



11. Trochilus anna. 



ANNA'S HUMMING-BIRD. This diminutive straggler is no 

 doubt the spscies seen by .Dr. Palmer eleven years agOj but 

 of which he did not succeed in obtaining a specimen. I 

 had been in hopes of finding in this bird a new species of 

 hammer. When the month of March arrived and I had not 

 even caught a glimpse of the bird, although on one or two 

 occasions I had heard it buzz as it went past, my hopes of 

 securing this unidentified species were almost gone, and I 

 fully resolved to shoot on sight the first I saw. .Returning 

 one day to my temporary camp from an excursion through 

 the pine belt, both barrels of my gun loaded with round 

 ball (1J oz.), I stopped at the foot of a fallen pine, intent 

 upon watching a small band of goats, when suddenly my 

 Mexican companion seized my arm and whispered : ' ' la 

 chuparrosa, senor." Following with my eyes the direction 

 indicated by his outstretched hand, I saw a female hummer 

 upon a dead twig among the pine branches, pluming her- 

 self. The feelings I experienced some years ago in meeting a 

 panther, at dusk, in a wooded canon when my gun was 



