Sept. 1834. 



HUMMING-BIRDS. 



331 



ground; but I could not see whether it ever actually alighted. 

 At the time of year I refer to^ there were very few flowers, 

 and none whatever near the beds of bromelia. Hence I was 

 quite sure they did not live on honey; and on opening the 

 stomach and upper intestine_j by the aid of a lens I could 

 plainly distinguish, in a yellow fluid, morsels of the wings of 

 diptera — probably tipulidse. It is evident that these birds 

 search for minute insects in their winter-quarters under the 

 thick foliage. . I opened the stomachs of several specimens, 

 which were shot in difi'erent parts of the continent ; and in 

 all, remains of insects were so numerous, as often to present 

 a black comminuted mass, as in the stomach of a creeper. 

 In central Chile these birds are migratory : they make their 

 appearance there in autumn, and in the latter end of the 

 month corresponding to our October, they were very com- 

 mon. In the spring they began to disappear, and on the 

 12th of what would correspond to our March, in the course 

 of a long walk, I saw only one individual. As this species 

 migrates to the southward, it is replaced by the arrival of a 

 larger kind, which will be presently described. I do not 

 believe the small kind breeds in Chile ; for, during the sum- 

 mer, their nests were common to the south of that country. 

 The migration of the humming-birds on both the east* and 

 west coast of North America exactly corresponds to what 

 takes place in this southern continent. In both cases they 

 move towards the tropic during the colder parts of the year, 

 and retreat northward before the returning heat. Some, how- 

 ever, remain during the whole year in Tierra del Fuego ; and 

 in Northern California, — which in the northern hemisphere 

 has the same relative position which Tierra del Fuego has in 

 the southern, — some, according to Beechey, likewise remain. 



The second species [Trochilus gigas) is a very large bird, 

 for the delicate family to which it belongs. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Valparaiso, during this year, it had arrived in 



* Humboldt's Pers. Narr., vol. v., part i., p. 352 ; Cook's Third Voyage, 

 vol. ii. ; and Beechey 's Voyage. 



