HUMMING-BIRDS. 



29 



inhabit the gloomy forests, feeding chiefly on insects, instead of courting the sun- 

 shine and sucking the honey from flowers. Mr. Stolzmann states that in Peru the 

 grey-throated hermit (P. griseigidaris), instead of inhabiting the hot and moist 

 forests, Hke the other species of the genus, frequents dry and arid valleys, where 

 it seeks the densest thickets and sometimes banana-plantations. While this observer 

 was passing near some thick bushes, he was once arrested by the sound of a very 

 shrill note, repeated at intervals, which struck him at first as the utterance of a 

 tanager, and he searched in vain 

 to find the bird. Baffled, he at 

 last lay down at the bottom of 

 the thicket, and after some 

 minutes discovered a tiny bird 

 perched on a branch quite close 

 to the ground. Here was the 

 meeting- place of the hermits, 

 and the observer at length found 

 four or five of these birds seated 

 at a short distance from each 

 other, at intervals uttering their 

 whistle, while sometimes one 

 would take a short flight round, 

 and then hasten back to the 

 same place. Subsequently he 

 heard the birds on several 

 occasions in the same thicket, 



uttering their characteristic cry. At another place exactly the same curious 

 habits were observed in an allied species (P. superciliosus). Mr. Stolzmann also 

 says that the hermits often come in front of an intruder, and remain suspended 

 in the air, examining him all the time with marked curiosity. 

 The Sword-Bill In the single species of the genus Docimastes we meet with the 



Hu mmin g-Bird. most extreme development of bill among the humming-birds, since it 

 is here equal to the length of the whole bird, measuring, at least, as much as 

 4 inches. The home of this bird is in the Andes, from Venezuela and Colombia to 

 Peru ; and the long bill is specially developed to enable its owner to extract insects 

 from elongated tubular flowers. In some parts of Peru, visited by the Polish 

 travellers, Jelski and Stolzmann, the sword-bill was by no means common, although 

 tubular flowers were met with in abundance, and the bird need fear no rivals, since 

 no others of its kindred could probe these long tubes. Jelski states that he found 

 the species frequenting a Jacksonia with a long red corolla ; the bird hovering for 

 a moment before the flower, inserting its beak rapidly, and then withdrawing two 

 or three inches, when it again shot the bill into the same flower ; this manoeuvre 

 being repeated many times on the same blossom. The bird is also said sometimes 

 to pierce the side of the flower with its lance-like bill to get at the honey within. 

 According to Mr. Salvin, the female has a longer bill than the male, this organ 

 reaching a length of 7 inches in the hen bird, whose colours are a little less 

 brilliant than those of her mate. 



pbetre's HKKMIT. 



