Ornithological Journey through Colombia and Ecuador. 207 
XIV. — Results of an OrnithologicalJourney through Colombia 
and Ecuador. — Part V. By Walter Goodfellow, F.Z.S. 
[Concluded from p. 67,] 
Fam. Trochilid^. 
(316-432.) 
We devoted special attention to the Humming-birds during 
our expedition, but almost the entire collection of the 
members of this family has gone to the U.S. National Mu- 
seum, Washington, together with copious field-notes relating 
to them. It is now being worked out there by M r. Oberholzer^ 
and an account of it will shortly be published containing our 
notes and results in full, but we may venture to make some 
general remarks. We obtained examples of what we con- 
sidered to be about 116 species of this charming group, but the 
number will probably be much increased when the specimens 
have been properly worked out. With very few exceptions, 
all of them were killed with an Indian " bordaquera '' or blow- 
pipe, for it would be useless to kill them with a gun, however 
small the shot was. Consequently all our skins are perfect, 
and there is hardly one among them that is poor. It is gene- 
rally supposed that a European cannot acquire the use of a 
blow-pipe. In one sense this is correct, so far as shooting 
with darts goes, for then a tube 9 or 10 feet long must be 
used, which a " European ^^ unaccustomed to it will find very 
unwieldy. In Popaydn, however, we met a young Colombian 
gentleman who was very proficient in the use of the blow- 
pipe, and from him we learnt how to cut the Indian tubes 
down to 5 or 6 feet in length and to use clay pellets instead 
of poisoned darts. We did this and practised on small birds 
in the garden, and none were more surprised than ourselves 
at the rapid progress we made. 
We found Humming-birds scarce in Southern Colombia 
during the time of our visit, whereas in Ecuador at certain 
altitudes they predominated. If an ornithologist were to visit 
the Central Cordillera at the back of Popayan I am sure that 
he would find there a distinctly new species of Lesbia. I saw 
examples of it on several occasions at an altitude of about 
