0)1 Birds observed in Amelia County, Virginia. 83 



and if one remains quiet they will often come and cry within a 

 few feet of one, generally selecting a log or rail, or some bare 

 spot of ground. I have noticed that a white patch, where some 

 mortar had formerly been made up, was always especially attrac- 

 tive to them, and two or three of these patches were always fre- 

 quented nightly by the males calling to their mates. On these 

 white patches they were most conspicuous in their dark dress, 

 and I Tbelieve that was their reason for frequenting them. They 

 remain all the summer, and leave about the middle of September. 

 Some years they are much more abundant than others. 



CHiETURA PELAGICA (Baird.) Chimney Swift. — My earliest 

 note of its arrival is the 19th of April. It is common throughout 

 summer and remains until autumn. 



Trochilus colubris (Linn.) Ruhy-throated Humming-Bird. 

 — It arrives in the beginning of May. I have taken it as soon 

 as the ] 8th of April, but that is earlier than usual. For the first 

 two weeks in May they are quite abundant ; afterwards when 

 many have passed north, they are not so numerous, though com- 

 mon until autumn. After the 25th of August they are very 

 numerous for a little time ; the young broods, I suppose, perhaps 

 augmented by arrivals from the north. I have never noticed one 

 after the Gth September, although in Lower Canada I have seen 

 them up to the 7th. I have taken their nests, with the eggs 

 hard set, on the 27th May and 1st of July. I have never seen 

 the female act as Mr. Webber describes ; * mine when returning 

 to their nests always flew up boldly, and settled on or near it, 

 just as any other bird might do. 



I find that on account of the turned-in lip, with which these 

 beautiful little nests are furnished, they will bear being inclined 

 at an angle of 135° from the perpendicular, or nearly upside 

 down, before they will allow the eggs to fall out. 



They are hot-tempered little birds, and I have often seen the 

 males quarrelling with each other, darting up and down perpen- 

 dicularly, to a height of twenty or thirty feet so rapidly that the 

 eye can hardly follow them, uttering all the time a sharp, squeaky 

 note of anger. I have sometimes myself been attacked in the 

 same way by one of these little birds whose indignatiou I had in 



* " Wild Scenes and Song Birds." 



