INTBODDCTION. 



XXV 



minimus, or Smaller Humming Bird of Jamaica, thus described 

 by Mr. Bullock: — "The first of these minute creatures, less in size 

 than some of the bees, which I ever saw alive, was near the house 

 of a gentleman at Kingstone. He had taken his station on the 

 twig of a large tamarind tree, which was close to the house, and 

 overspread part of the yard; there, perfectly indifferent to the 

 number of persons constantly passing within a few yards, he spent 

 most of the day. There were few blossoms on the tree, and it was 

 not the breeding season, yet he most pertinaceously kept absolute 

 possession of his dominion; for the moment any other bird, though 

 ten times as large as himself, approached near his tree, he attacked 

 it most furiously, and drove it off, always returning to the same 

 twig as he had before occupied, and which he had worn quite 

 bare for three or four inches, by constantly perching on it, I 

 often approached within a few feet, with pleasure observing his 

 tiny operation of dressing and pluming, and listening to his weak, 

 simple, and oft-repeated- note. I could easily have caught him, 

 but was unwilling to destroy so interesting a little visitant, who 

 had afforded me much pleasure. In my excursions round Xing- 

 stone I procured many of the same species, and of the Long-tailed 

 Black, and a few others, as well as the one I have mentioned, 

 as the smallest yet described, but which has the finest voice of 

 any. I spent some agreeable hours in the place that had been 

 the Botanical Garden of Jamaica, and on the various trees now 

 growing to a luxuriant size met with many curious birds, among 

 which this specimen was pei'ched on the bread-fruit or cabbage- 

 tree. He poured forth his slight querulous note among a most 

 curious assemblage of the indigenous and exotic plants and trees 

 of the island, on a spot once the pride of Jamaica, now a deserted 

 wilderness." 



Mr. Gosse, in his "Birds of Jamaica," speaks also of a species, 

 which he terms the Vervain Humming Bird, but which it seems 

 likely is the same as that described as above by Bullock. He 

 says, "the present is the only Humming Bird that I am acquainted 

 with that has a real song. Soon after sunrise in the spring months, 

 it is fond of sitting on the topmost branches of some mango or 

 orange tree, where it warbles in a very weak but very sweet 

 tone, a continuous melody for two minutes at a time: it has little 

 variety. The others have only a pertinacious chirping." 



None of the Spanish writers who have alluded to the Humming 

 Bird speak of its song; but Levius and Theretus, two Trench 

 authors, declare that these birds do sing, and that moreover they 

 are such accomplished songsters, that no one who had not seen 

 and heard them, would believe that so sweet a strain could proceed 

 from such small bodies. Perhaps if they had examined a little 



