ORNITHOLOGY OF GUADALUPE ISLAND. 293 



loaded for quail, were not dissimilar to those which now 

 canie over me as I gazed upon the coveted hummer not fif- 

 teen feet away, and realized that my gun contained ball. 



As I broke open the breech and dropped the provoking 

 loads, the bird rose and hovering about for a few seconds, 

 during which I reloaded and waited in a fever of suspense, 

 she returned to nearly the same spot, when I fired and killed 

 only an Anna humming-bird. Later I took another fe- 

 male, and afterwards a male, the two latter being found in 

 the small cypress grove. The dearth of honied flowers must 

 at times force them to subsist almost entirely upoH insect 

 food. The Mexicans told me that I would find them in 

 great numbers about the palm trees on the northwestern 

 slope; but an expedition to that region resulted in a total 

 failure as far as the object for which it was undertaken was 

 concerned, although the addition of two more straggling- 

 species to those already taken compensated me for the fa- 

 tigue of the journey. 



LIST OF SPECIMENS COLLECTED. 



12. Sturnella magna neglecta, 



WESTERN MEADOW LARK. A single specimen was seen in 

 the palm grove on the 22d day of March. Although I ap- 

 proached quite. near as he sat, loudly singing from the top 

 branch of a fallen pine, I failed to capture him. That un- 

 successful shot, one of the " unaccoun tables" of a hunter- 

 naturalist's experiences, seemed at the time to be one of the 

 keenest disappointments of my life. 



13. Carpodacus amplus. 



GUADALUPE HOUSE FINCH. When I arrived at the island 



