Walter Goodfellow—Some Reminiscences of a Collector 219


not require so much care in the way of special heating. Anyone with

only a small conservatory could make an equally fine show, and at

a comparatively small cost. I have had no experience with Hummers

in captivity, and from what I had seen of their behaviour in a wild

state, I never thought it would be possible to keep them together, but

the Zoo has proved they can be so kept.


The first time I went to Ecuador to collect skins, I paid special

attention to Humming Birds, with the result that in Northern Ecuador

alone I collected about one hundred and fifty species including several

new ones. The first I saw alive were on the little Dutch island of

Curayoa in the West Indies, and were feeding on some bushes in front

of the post office. I was standing within two or three feet and could

easily have caught them in a butterfly net; indeed, later on in South

America I often did. Most people associate them solely with tropical

forests and beautiful flowers as I once did, so it came almost as a shock

to see them sitting prosaically on the telegraph wires along dusty

roads, or high up in the cold on misty mountain sides. They often sit

inactive for long stretches at a time, as many may have noticed at the

Zoo. Some are very crepuscular and are feeding when it is almost

too dark to see them. Perhaps the smallest of all, but with a name

longer than itself, Choetocercus bomhus, is no larger than a humble-bee,

and was found feeding on the flowers of the coffee bushes at Santo

Domingo in Ecuador, in the company of hawk-moths, when it was

too dusk to distinguish between them. I remember on more than

one occasion when I was skinning birds in Quito, Petasophom

iolata flew in the room and, hovering at the edge of the table by my

elbow, pulled at the cotton wool I was using to built a nest by the

window. These same birds were often about the rooms searching for

spiders near the ceilings.


At present, I think most people are only attracted by their

diminutive size ; but the time, no doubt, will come when the larger

kinds will be equally appreciated and the more curious and beautiful

ones desired.


It is just possible that some of the high mountain Hummers might

suffer when brought down to the coast, but once at sea they should be

all right. The only high-mountain birds which died with me were the



