240 SALLfi'S HERMIT HUMMING-BIED. 



VeiT little is known of its habits, but, like 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 and 

 in En-land would attract little attention. The best songster of all the Hummmg-birds 

 appeals to be the Vervain Humming-biiTl {MelUsnga mimma), which, according to 

 Mr. Bullock, can sing, although not very perfectly. , ,i i 



" He had taken his station on the twig of a tamarmd-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 blos- 

 soms on the tree, and it was not the breeding season, yet he most pertinaciously kept 

 absolute possession of his domain ; for the moment any other biixl, though ten times as 

 lar<^e as himself approached near his tree, he attacked it most furiously and drove it off, 



SALLE'S HERMIT HUMMINGr-BIRD. —PAaeiAorreis Augusti. 



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 unwil- 

 ling to destroy so interesting a little visitant, who had afforded me so much pleasure. 



In my excursions round Kingston I procured many of the same species, as well as 

 the long-tailed black and a few others, as well as the one I have mentioned as the smallest 

 yet described, but which has the finest voice of any. I spent some agreeable hours in the 

 place that had been the Botanical Garden of Jamaica ; and on the various trees, now 

 growing to a luxuriant size, met with many curious birds, among which this specimen was 

 perched upon the bread-fruit or cabbage tree. He poured forth his slight querulous note 

 among a most numerous assemblage of the indigenous and exotic plants and trees of the 

 island, on a spot once the pride of Jamaica, but now a desolate wilderness." This beau- 

 tiful Humming-bird will be described at length in a future page. 



To return to Salle's Hermit. The upper parts of its body are green-bronze, excepting 

 the upper tail-coverts, which are rusty red. The wings are purple-brown. The central tail- 

 feathers are bronze, largely tipped with white, and the remaining feathers are M^hite, with 

 the exception of a broad black band, drawn oblicjuely across them near the base. Above 

 and below the eye there is a white streak, and the colour of the under parts of the body is 

 sober grey. 



