- 103 - 
A Humming:- 
bird 
concert 
through the woods, one apparently pursuing the other and 
one or both making a loud smacking sound which I found 
could be imitated almost perfectly by pressing the tongue 
against the roof of the mouth and withdrawing it forcibly. 
After the pursuit had continued for a minute or two, one 
bird would return to the perch and begin yepp ing again. 
His motions while thus engaged were peculiar and most 
interesting. He sat very erect but in an easy, listless 
attitude, the points of the wings drooping below the tail 
which was closed and kept constantly vibrating up and down 
slightly, there being usually about two vibrations to each 
call. With each yep' the long bill was thrown nearly straight 
up and the mouth slightly opened while the red under man¬ 
dible showed very conspicuously and the ishole body twitched 
convulsively. At long intervals (in fact, we saw it only 
twice) the bird would spread his tail to its widest extent 
and erect it over his back so that it pointed straight 
up, at the same time moving it slowly from side to side. 
The tips of the central feathers nearly touched the. back of 
the head and the general effect wa.s almost precisely like 
that of a strutting Turkey Cock, 
All these Hummers perched low down when calling, 
usually from two to four feet above the ground on slender 
horizontal twigs bare of leaves. 
I shot a fine Coq-bois and several other small 
birds, among them two Yellow-headed Manakins. We retuaned 
to breakfast and spent the day over our specimens. 
