xxxiv INTRODUCTION. 



September the localities of the various species of Humming-Birds are usually as follows. Among the trees 

 on the south-eastern side of the lake" of Duenas '' are Amazilia Demllel, Thaumastura henkura (mostly 

 females), Campylopterus rufus, Helmnaster longirostris, Chlorostilbon Osberti (in small number), Cyanomyia 

 cyanocephala^ and Troehilus Colubris, 



" On the hill-side to the south-westward of the lake are great numbers of Campylopterus rufus, and among 

 the willows close to the water the males of Thaumastura henkura congregate. About the Convolvulus-trees 

 in the llano at the foot of the volcano are found Eugenes fulgens, Amazilia Demllei, Thaumastura henkura 

 (in small numbers), Troehilus Colubris (very commonly towards the end of September), 



"Entering the first barranco that opens out into the plain, we meet with Camptjlopterus rufus, Myiabeillia 

 tijpica, Heliopcedica melanotis^, and a little higher up, Petasophora thalassina and Delattria mridipallens. Of 

 course, occasionally a species is found not in its place as here indicated ; for instance, I have seen in the 

 first locality a single specimen (the only female I have met with) of Eugenes fulgens, and another high in 

 the volcano. I have also seen a single Petasophora thalassina out on the llano. These localities must 

 therefore be taken as only generally indicating the distribution of the species found about Duenas." — Ibis, 

 vol. ii. p. 263. 



At the moment of printing these pages, I have received a very interesting letter from my friend the 

 Hon. G. W. Allen, of Moss Park, Toronto, in which the following passage occurs respecting the Troehilus 

 Colubris : — 



" I wish you could have been with us last summer, you would have had an opportunity of watching your 

 favourite Humming-Birds to your heart's content, I do not in the least exaggerate when I say that, during 

 the time the horse-chestnuts were in flower, there were hundreds of these little tiny creatures about my 

 grounds. While sitting in my library I could hear their little, sharp, querulous note, as the males fought 

 like so many httle bantam-cocks with each other. On one large horse-chestnut tree, just at the corner of the 

 house, they swarmed about the foliage like so many bees ; and as the top branches of the tree were close 

 to my bed-room windows, every now and then one bird more bold than the rest would dart into the open 

 window, and perch upon the wardrobe or the top of the bed-post." 



It will be expected that, in a monograph of a group of birds which have attracted so much notice, some 

 account should be given of their internal structure ; and as our well-known bird-anatomist, T, C, Eyton, Esq,, 

 has paid much attention to the subject, and given a very clear description of the anatomy of the largest 

 species of the family (the Patagona gigas) in Mr. Darwin's ' Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle,' I 

 have much pleasure in transferring it to my pages : — 



"Tongue bifid, each division pointed; hyoids very long, in their position resembling those in the 

 Picidae (Woodpeckers) ; trachea of uniform diameter, destitute of muscles of voice; bronchia very long; 

 oesophagus funnel-shaped, slightly contracted on approaching the proventriculus, which is small and scarcely 

 perceptible ; gizzard small, moderately muscular, the inner coat slightly hardened, and filled with the remains 

 of insects ; intestine largest near the gizzard ; I could not perceive a vestige of cseca. Length of the oeso- 

 phagus, including the proventriculus, If, inch of the intestinal canal 3i-; length of the gizard tj breadth l. 



"Sternum with the keel very deep, its edge rounded and projecting anteriorly; posterior margin rounded, 



