Dr. W. Jameson and Mr. L. Fraser on Humming-birds . 399 
his pal Dick collected a ton of feathers last year. To do this 
they must have killed 56,000 birds; and yet they say their 
numbers do not seem to decrease. The birds come back to the 
islands again on the 23rd of November to lay. They lay but 
one egg, and generally on the day or the day after they arrive. 
The sealers collect a good many for their use; and when the 
young birds are nearly full-grown, they attack them again for 
the sake of the oil with which the old birds feed them. They 
thrust their hands into the hole, pull out the young bird by the 
head, kill it by squeezing it; and holding it up by the legs, the oil 
runs out of its beak. This oil is very clean and pure, burns 
well, and sells at Launceston at four shillings per gallon. When 
the young birds are full-grown they are very fat. The men then 
pull them out of their holes, split them, and salt them. It is 
rather dangerous work catching them in this way; for many 
venomous snakes dwell in the holes, and are sometimes seized 
and pulled out instead of a bird. 
XLI.— Notes on some of the Humming-birds of Ecuador figured 
in Mr. Gould’s Monograph, By Dr. William Jameson, of 
Quito, and Louis Fraser, Corr. Memb. Zool. Soc. 
1. Oreotrochilus Chimborazo (Gould, Mon. pt. 2). 
This bird is not found below the elevation of 14,000 feet; but 
vegetation does not cease here, as M. Bourcier seems to say— 
for how then could these birds live ? It is never seen perching 
on the extremity of the Chuquiraga ( Chuquiraga insignis), as re¬ 
presented in Mr. Gould’s plate, but always clinging to the sides 
of the flowers of that plant. It is very abundant in its locality. 
2. Oreotrochilus pichincha (Gould, Mon. pt. 2). 
It is impossible that any species can be more common than 
O. chimborazo ; but this bird is more attainable on account of 
the proximity of Pichincha to Quito. Like the former, it is not 
found below the altitude of 14,000 feet. 
3. Lesbia amaryllis (Gould, Mon. pt. 7). 
This bird is only found on the Table-land. 
4. Patagona gigas (Gould, Mon. pt. 9). 
