LONG-TAILED HUMMING-BIRD. 119 



were accustomed to the room, their vivacity was 

 extreme, manifested in their upright posture, 

 and quick turns and glances when sitting, which 

 caused their lovely breasts to flash out from dark- 

 ness into sudden lustrous light like rich gems; 

 and no less by their dar tings hither and thither, 

 their most graceful wheelings and evolutions in the 

 air; so rapid that the eye was frequently baffled 

 in attempting to follow their motions. Suddenly 

 we lose the radiant little meteor in one corner, 

 and as quickly hear the vibration of his invisible 

 wings in another behind us : or find him hovering 

 in front of our face, without having seen, in the 

 least, how he came there. It is worthy of obser- 

 vation that Polytmus in flying upward, keeps the 

 feathers of the tail closed, but in descending they are 

 expanded to the utmost, at which time the two 

 long feathers, quivering with the rapidity of their 

 motion, like a streamer in a gale, form about a right 

 angle. I cannot tell why there should be this 

 difference, but I believe it is invariable. 



From that time to the end of May, I obtained 

 about twenty-five more, nearly all males, and with 

 one or two exceptions captured on the Bluefields 

 ridge. Some were taken with the net, others with 

 bird-lime ; but though transferred to a basket or 

 to a cage immediately on capture, not a few were 

 found dead on arrival at home. This sudden death 

 I could not at all account for : they did not beat 

 themselves against the sides, though they frequently 

 clung to them : from the wild look of several that 

 were alive when arrived, sitting on the bottom of 



