A NEW ACQUAINTANCE 235 



catching myself up and making sure even of the 

 little I had seen — I received an impression (it 

 was nothing more) of a black head as well as of 

 a black throat. If the impression was correct, 

 the bird coidd not be a ruby-throat, and besides, 

 unless my memory was at fault, the ruby-throat 

 was not to be looked for in this longitude. I 

 must see the handbook. 



A reference to that authority showed that eight 

 species of hummingbirds had been reported from 

 the Catalina Moimtains, but not the ruby-throat. 

 Of the two or three common ones among the 

 eight, the most likely candidate seemed to be the 

 black-chinned, Trochilus alexandri, though that 

 bird's crown is not black. Probably my impres- 

 sion upon that point had been erroneous ; so sur- 

 prised and hurried as I had been, a measure of 

 inexactness was rather to be looked for. At all 

 events, it was impossible to make out how the 

 bird could be any one of the other seven. By 

 the rule of exclusion — a pretty safe rule, I told 

 myself — he ought to be a black-chin. 



So the matter rested, not much to my satisfac- 

 tion, till the next morning. Then, as I have al- 

 ready said, I went immediately after breakfast 

 to stand beside that blossoming bush until the 

 bird should again show himself. If my confidence 

 that he would be there, in that precise spot, no 



