374 PERCHING BIRDS. 



The habits of this, the figured species, have been best described 



Banana-Quit. 



by Gosse, in his work on the Birds of Jamaica. Scarcely larger 

 than the average size of the humming-birds, this little creeper is often seen in 

 company with them, probing the same flowers and for the same purpose, but 

 in a very different manner. " Instead of hovering in front of each blossom, a task 

 for which its short wings would be utterly incompetent, the banana-quit alights 

 on the tree, and proceeds in the most business-like manner to peep into the flowers, 

 hopping actively from twig to twig, and throwing the body into all positions, 

 often clinging by the feet with the back downwards, the better to reach the 

 interior of a blossom, with its curved beak and pencilled tongue. The minute 

 insects which are always found in the interior of flowers are the objects of his 

 search and the reward of its perseverance. Unsuspectingly familiar, these birds 

 often resort to the blossoming shrubs of gardens and yards. A large moringa 

 tree, that is profusely set all the year through with fragrant spikes of bloom, 

 is a favourite resort of both these and the humming-birds. One within a few feet 

 of my window is, while I write this note, being actively scrutinised by two active 

 little creatures, that pursue their examination with a zeal perfectly undisturbed 

 by my looking on, while the same blossoms are rifled on one side by a minute 

 humming-bird, and on the other by that gorgeous butterfly, Urania sLoaneus — an 

 interesting association. The quit often utters a soft, sibilant note as it peeps 

 about. The nest of this bird is very frequently, perhaps usually, built in those 

 low trees and bushes from whose twigs depend the paper nests of the brown 

 wasps, and in close contiguity with them. The grass-quits are said to manifest 

 the same predilection ; it is a singular exercise of instinct, almost of reason, for 

 the object is doubtless the defence afforded by the presence of the formidable 

 insects, but upon what terms the league of amity is contracted between the neigh- 

 bours I am ignorant. It is in the months of May, June, and July that the creeper 

 performs the business of incubation. On the 4th of May I observed a banana-quit 

 with a bit of silk-cotton in her beak, and on searching found a nest just commenced 

 in a sage-bush. The structure, though but a skeleton, was evidently about to be 

 a dome, and so far was constructed of silk-cotton. Since then I have seen several 

 completed nests. One before me is in the form of a globe, with a small opening 

 below the side. The walls are very thick, composed of diy grass, intermixed 

 irregularly with down." The eggs are greenish white, speckled with reddish at 

 the larger end. In colour the upper-parts of this species are dark brown, with a 

 conspicuous white eyebrow ; the breast and the rest of the under-parts being 

 bright yellow. 



H. A. MACPHERSOX. 



[Note. — The account of those families to which an asterisk is prefixed has been entirely or in great part 

 written by the Editor.] 



