THE ISLAND OF CURACAO. 23 



limbs, and not at the end of a twig. We ate some of the tama- 

 rinds, and found them quite refreshing. There was also another 

 scrubby tree, hardly fit to be called a tree, with straggling thorny 

 limbs and small leaves, like our honey locust. This tree was scat- 

 tered pretty generally over the hills, and we noticed a peculiarity 

 about it, that is, that the majority of its branches pointed towards 

 the west. This is a result of the trade wind blowing constantly 

 from the east. This tree bore a few tiny yellow blossoms, and 

 around these we found some humming-birds. I missed the first 

 one that I shot at ; but later Cabell killed a pair. They were 

 smaller than our ruby-throat, the male a 

 most beautiful glittering green, its tail 

 steely blue, almost black, its wings dark 

 purplish brown. The second was either a 

 female, or young, and was similar to the 

 first, except that its colors were less bril- 

 liant. It had some dark grayish feathers 

 below and a white streak on each side of its 

 head. Both had little downy white puffs 

 around their vents {Chlorostilhoii atcda). 

 A little later I shot a large sparrow, quite like our white-croAvned 

 sparrow. Its head was handsomely marked with black and gray, 

 and it had a chestnut collar at the back of its neck (ZonotricJila 

 pileata). In a calabash-tree near here I shot a species of honey- 

 creeper ( Coereha iirojyj/giaUs), It was slate-brown above, its breast 

 and rump yellow, its head and throat slate-black, with a white 

 stripe above each eye. There was a fleshy excrescence at its gape, 

 which was pinkish red when the bird was fresh, but which faded 

 rapidly. Its tongue had a peculiar brushy tip. 



We went on as far as a convent and an orphan asylum, where one 

 of the nuns, a negress, gave us a drink of water. We then turned 

 back, and reached the ship about nine. The roads near the convent 

 were excellent, and had on either side a hedge of a species of cactus 

 which grew up like tall posts to ten, fifteen, and even twenty feet in 



CHLOROSTILBON SPLENDIDUS. 



(After Elliot.) 



