220 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Oct. ], 1865. 



Minute Calliope, on the other hand, prefers rocky 

 hill-sides at great altitudes, where only the Pimts 

 contorta, rock plants, and an alpine flora, "struggle 

 for existence." I have frequently killed this bird 

 above the line of perpetual snow. Its favonrite 

 resting-place is on the extreme point of a dead pine- 

 tree, where, if nndistuibed, it will sit for hours. 

 The site chosen for the nest is usually the branch 

 of a young pine; artfully concealed amidst the 

 fronds at the very end, it is rocked like a cradle by 

 every passing breeze. 



The Blaek-throated Humming-bird lingers around 

 lakes, pools, and swamps, where its favourite trap- 

 ping tree grows. I liave occasionally, though very 

 rarely, seen it hovering over flowers ; this, I appre- 

 hend, is only when the storehouse is empty, and 

 the sap too dry to capture the insects. They 

 generally build in the Birch or Alder, selecting the 

 fork of a branch high up. 



All humming-birds, as far as I know, lay only 

 two eggs; the young are so tightly packed into 

 the nest, and fit it so exactly, that if once taken 

 out it is quite impossible to replace them. Several 

 springs succeeding my first discovery that these hum- 

 ming-birds were regular migrants to boreal regions, 

 I watched their arrival. We were quartered for the 

 winter close to the western slopes of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and the winters here vary in lengtli, as 

 well as depth of snow and intensity of cold ; 33' 

 below zero being no infrequent register ; but it did 

 not matter whether we had a late or an early spring, 

 the humming-birds never came until the Ribes 

 opened, and in no single instance did two whole 

 days elapse after the blossoms expanded, but 

 Selasphorus and Calliope arrived to bid them welcome. 

 The males usually preceded the females by four or 

 five days. 



The Black-throated Humming-bird arrives about 

 a week or ten days after the other two. Marvellous 

 is the instinct that guides, and the power that 

 sustains these birds (not larger than a good-sized 

 humble-bee) over sueli an immense tract of country ; 

 and even more wonderful still is their arrival, timed 

 30 accurately, that the only flower adapted, to its 

 wants thus early in the year, opens its hoards 

 ready to supply the wanderers' necessities after so 

 tedious a migration. It seems to me vastly like de- 

 sign, and foreseeing wisdom, that a shrub, indigenous 

 and widely distributed, should be so fashioned as to 

 produce its blossoms long before its leaves ; and 

 that this very plant alone blooms ere the snow has 

 melted oft" the land, and that too at the exact period 

 when humming-l'irds arrive. It cannot be chance, 

 but the work of the Almighty architect, who shaped 

 them both, whose handiwork we discover at every 

 step, and of whose sublime conceptions we every- 

 where observe the manifestations in the admirably- 

 balanced system of creation. 



The specific characters of these three species, 



whose northern range I believe was first defined 

 by myself, are briefly : — 



Selasphorus hufus (the Nootka or Bed-backed 

 Humming-bird). — Sp. ch. : Male, — tail strong and 

 wedge-shaped ; upper parts, lower tail-coverts, and 

 back, cinnamon ; throat coppery red, with a well- 

 developed ruff of the same, bordered with a white 

 collar ; tail-feathers cinnamon, striped with pur- 

 plish-brown. Female, — plain; cinnamon on the back, 

 replaced with green ; traces only of metallic feathers 

 on the throat. Length of male, 3'50; wing, 1"56 ; 

 tail, 1'31. Hab. — West coast of North America to 

 lat. 53° N., extending its range southward over 

 the Gulf of California, to the Rio Grande. 



TuocuiLus Calliope. — Sp.ch. : Male, — back bright 

 green; wings brownish ; neck with a ruft'of pinnated 

 magenta-coloured feathers, the lower ones much 

 elongated ; abdomen whitish ; length about 2'75. 

 Female, — much plainer than the male, with only a 

 trace of the magenta-coloured ruff. 



Trochilus Alexandei (Black-throated Hum- 

 ming bird). — Male, — tail slightly forked; the chin 

 and upper part of the throat velvety black, without 

 metallic reflexions, which are confined to the 

 posteriorborder of the black, and are violet, changing 

 to steel-blue. Length 3' 30. Female, — without the 

 metallic markings; tail-feathers tipped with white. 

 Both have the same northern and southern range 

 as Sel. riifus. 



J. K. Lord, P.Z.S. 



Blue Bleabane in Cumberlai^d. — I believe 

 I have made a little discovery; and take the 

 liberty of sending an account of it, requesting 

 the favour of insertion. The discovery I allude to 

 is a habitat iov Friffero/i acre as a Cumberland plant. 

 I am aware that it has been described before as 

 belonging to this county. Yfilson, of Kendal (17M-), 

 mentions it in his " Synopsis." Jenkinson (1775) 

 also mentions it in his " Description of British 

 Plants ; " but neither of these gives any locality. 

 In the " Cybele " it is said to grow in the " Lake 

 district ; " but as this includes Cumberland, West- 

 moreland, and part of Lancashire, it leaves the 

 locality still indefinite. It is not mentioned by 

 Withering, nor in Miss Martineau's useful little 

 " Guide to the Lakes." I have consulted some of 

 our most observant botanists, and they do not know 

 it as a Cumberland plant. I think, therefore, I may 

 fairly claim it as a discovery. I found it growing 

 in considerable quantity on a gravelly bank of the 

 river Coldew, a few }niles from Carlisle. It would 

 not be prudent to indicate the exact spot, as the 

 rapacity of collectors, I fear, would soon eradicate 

 my little protege. Our rare plants are becoming 

 still more rare. I wish every botanist would 

 inscribe on his vaseulum, "Woodman, spare that 

 tree," — Wood Robert. 



