26 
P1CARIAN BIRDS. 
just behind Bluefields, and known as the Bluefields Ridge. Behind the peaks 
which are visible from the sea, at an elevation of about half a mile, there runs 
through the dense woods a narrow path, just passable for a horse, overrun with 
beautiful ferns of many graceful forms, and always damp and cool. The whirring 
made by the vibrating wings of the male polytmus is a shriller sound than that 
produced by the female, and indicates its proximity before the eye has detected it. 
The male almost constantly utters a monotonous, quick chirk, both while resting 
on a twig, and while sucking from flower 
to flower. They do not invariably probe 
flowers upon the wing; one may frequently 
observe them thus engaged, when alighted 
and sitting with closed wings, and often 
they partially sustain themselves by clinging 
with the feet to a leaf while sucking, the 
wings being expanded and vibrating. The 
humming-birds in Jamaica do not confine 
themselves to any particular season for nidi- 
fication. In almost every month of the year 
I have either found, or have had brought to 
me, the nests of polytmus in occupation. 
Still, as far as my experience goes, they are 
most numerous in June; while Mr. Hill con¬ 
siders January as the most normal period. 
It is not improbable that two broods are 
reared in a season. In the latter part of 
February, a friend showed me a nest of this 
species in a singular situation, but which I 
afterwards found to be quite in accordance 
with its usual habits. It was at Bonnie, 
situated on the Bluefields Mountain, but at 
some distance from the scene above described. 
On the 12th of November, we took, in Blue¬ 
fields morass, the nest of a polytmus, con- 
jamaica humming-bird. taining two eggs, one of which had the 
chick considerably advanced, the other was 
freshly laid. The nest was placed on a hanging twig of a black mangrove tree, the 
twig passing perpendicularly through the side, and out at the bottom. It is mainly 
composed of silk-cotton very closely pressed, mixed with the still more glossy 
cotton asclepias, particularly round the edge; the seed remaining attached to some 
of the filaments.” 
White-Crowned Two species of the curious genus Microchera are known to 
Humming-Bird. sc i en ce; the one confined to the mountains of Western Panama, and 
the other (M. parvirostris) taking its place in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Both 
are remarkable for their snow-white crowns and tiny dimensions, being only about 
inches in length. According to its describer, Mr. Merrill, the latter is not so 
persistent in its flight as most of the humming-birds, and rests more frequently, 
