PASSERINE. TENUIROSTRES. 287 



Society, May 13, 1834, " A note was read from Mrs. 

 Barnes, in which it was stated, that that lady had 

 brought up from the nest two of the smallest species 

 of Jamaica Humming-birds. They were so tame, 

 that at a call they would fly to her and perch upon 

 her finger. Their food was sugar and water. Dur- 

 ing the passage to England one of them was killed 

 by the cage in which they were kept being thrown 

 down in a storm ; its companion drooped immedi- 

 ately, and died shortly afterwards."* They are 

 not at all difficult to procure ; the writer has cap- 

 tured the Ruby-throat in North America with the 

 greatest facility by means of a common butterfly 

 ring-net. Our acquaintance with the native habits of 

 these fairy creatures is chiefly derived from Wilson's 

 and Audubon's vivid accounts of the North American 

 species, the Ruby-throat (T. Colubris), and Bullock's 

 notices of a few West Indian and Mexican kinds. 

 They appear in general much to resemble each other, 

 but the mode of hunting adopted by one, the Mexi- 

 can Star, (T. Cyanopogon^\) is so curious, that we 

 cannot refrain from quoting it as detailed by Mr. 

 Bullock : " The house I resided in at Xalapa for 

 several weeks, on my return to Vera Cruz, was 

 only one story high, enclosing, like most of the 

 Spanish houses, a small garden in the centre, the 

 roof projecting six or seven feet from the walls, 

 covering a walk all round, and leaving a small space 

 only between the tiles and the trees which grew 



* Proceedings, 1834, p. 33. 



*f* Kvavaj, kyanos, blue, and iruyuv, pof/on, the beard. 



