172 SALLE'S HERMIT HUMMING-BIRD. 



fire, stretcliing out its glorious ruff as if to emulate the sun itself in splendor. Towards the 

 close of May the females were sitting, at which time the males were uncommonly quarrelsome 

 and vigilant, darting out at once as I ap^jroached the tree, probably near the nest, looking like 

 an angry coal of brilliant lire, passing within very little of my face, returning several times to 

 the attack, sailing and darting with the utmost velocity, at tlie same time uttering a curious 

 reverberating shaip l)leat, somewhat similar to the quivering twang of a dead twig, yet also so 

 much like the real bleat of some small quadruj)ed, that for some time I searched the ground 

 instead of the air for the actor in the scene. 



"At other times the males were seen darting higli up in the air, and whirling about each 

 other in great anger and with much velocity. After these iiianoeuvres, the aggressor returned 

 to the same dead twig, where for days he resolutely took his station, displaying the utmost 

 courage and angry vigilance. The angry hissing or bleating note seems something like 

 wTif f f V f sh vee, tremulously uttered as it whirls and sweeps through the air, accomi^anied 

 also by something like the whirr of the night hawk. On the 29th of May I found a nest in a 

 forked branch of the Nootka bramble {Rubus nutkanus). Tlie female was sitting upon two 

 eggs of the same shape and color as those of the common s^jecies, Trochllus colubris. The 

 nest also was similar, but somewhat deeper. As I approached, the female came hovering 

 round the nest, and soon after, when all was still, she resumed her place contentedly." 



The nest of this bird measures, according to Audubon's description, two inches and a 

 quarter in height and an inch and three-quarters in breadth at the upper part, and is com- 

 posed of mosses, lichens, and feathers, woven together with delicate vegetable fibres. The 

 lining is very soft cotton. Another observer. Dr. Townsend, compares the curious note of this 

 bird to the sound which is produced by the rubbing together of two branches during a high 

 wind. 



The birds which compose the genus Phaethornis are remarkable for the very long and 

 beautifully graduated tail, all the feathers being long and pojnted, and the two central far 

 exceeding the rest. The two sexes are mostly alike, both in the color and shajoe of their 

 plumage and in size. These birds inhabit Venezuela and the Carracas, being generally found 

 in the richest district of those localities, where the flowers blossom most abundantly. All the 

 Hennits InxUd a very curious and beautiful nest, of a long funnel-like form taiiering to a 

 slender point, and woven with the greatest neatness to some delicate twig or pendent leaf 

 by means of certain spiders' webs. The material of which it is made is silky cotton fibre, 

 intermixed with a woolly kind of furze, and bound together with si:)ider-web. Next we 

 describe Salle's Hermit. 



Very little is known of its habits, but, lil^e the generality of Humming-birds, it does not 

 possess any great power of voice. Indeed, even in the few instances where one of these birds 

 is gifted with vocal powers, its song is of a feeble and uncertain character. The best songster 

 of all the Humming-birds appeal's to be the Vervain Humming-bird {3Iellisuga minima), 

 which, according to Mr. Bullock, can sing, although not very perfectly. 



" He had taken his station on the twig of a tamarind-tree which was close to the barn and 

 overspread part of the yard ; there, perfectly indifferent to the number of persons constantly 

 passing within a few yards, he spent most of the day. There were few blossoms on the tree, 

 and it Avas not the breeding season, yet he most pertinaciously kept absolute possession of his 

 domain ; for the moment any other bird, though ten times as large as himself, approached 

 near his tree, he attacked it most furiously and drove it off, always returning to the same 

 twig he had before occupied, and which he had worn quite bare for three or four inches by 

 constantly feeding on it. I often approached within a few feet with pleasure, observing his 

 tiny operations of cleaning and pluming, and listening to his weak, simple, and oft-repeated 

 note. I could easily have caught him, but was unwilling to destroy so interesting a little 

 visitant, who had afforded me so much pleasure. 



"In my excursions I procured many of the same species, as well as the long-tailed black 

 an! a few others, as well as the one I have mentioned as the smallest yet described, but which 

 lias the finest voice of any. I spent some agreeable hours in the place that had been the 



