Racket-tailed Humming-bird 93 



of between 7000 and 9000 feet above sea-level. The 

 country is bare of forest, and it is only in its southern 

 portion that one meets with the Montana of Puma-Urcu, 

 which, so to speak, joins with the forests of Huayabanba, 

 that is, with the principal mass of the forests of Northern 

 Peru. The remainder of the country inhabited by the 

 Loddigesia is covered with cultivated fields, pastures, or 

 brush-wood, and there is a system of small valleys and 

 ravines with a somewhat richer vegetation, and containing 

 here and there groups of large trees, probably the survivors 

 of the ancient forests. The greater part of these areas is 

 covered with almost impenetrable thickets of a thorny 

 plant, called Zarza (Peruvian Strawberry), mixed here 

 and there witii alders. It is in these thickets that the 

 Loddigesia dwells, appearing to avoid the large forests 

 bare of the flowers necessary for its subsistence. 



" A beautiful Alstromcria, with a red flower, seems to be 

 its favourite flower, as one can make sure of finding the 

 Loddigesia wherever this flower is met with. The plant 

 flourishes from the month of August up to the end of 

 November, As this flower is not visited by the Lesbia 

 gracilis, which is the Humming-bird which most persistently 

 persecutes the Loddigesia, the latter feeds at its ease. It 

 loves also to visit the flowers of a sort of spring strawberry 

 and also a certain tree called by the natives Tola, which is 

 apparently a kind of myrtle. The female is likewise 

 observed on the little violet flowers of a species of Pimento 

 called in this part of the country ' Aji'. 



" Nowhere can this Humming-bird be said to be com- 

 mon. On the contrary, it must be considered to be a 

 rare species, and the full-plumaged males are decidedly 

 scarcer than the females and the young males. From 

 morning till evening the birds are in continual motion. 

 Whilst some Humming-birds appear to have their hours of 

 rest, and others abandon themselves to the performance of 



