HUMMING-BIRDS. 
33 
its favourite flower, and wherever this occurs the humming-bird may be observed, 
and as it is in flower from August to November, and as another humming-bird 
(.Lesbia gracilis) does not affect this tree, the present bird thrives. It is one of 
the most active of the family, seldom taking rest, the females being especially 
lively. The adult males are more rarely seen than the hens and younger males, 
but they are beautiful objects when seen in front of the calyx of a flower, the tail 
with its two rackets being depressed, while the bird is hovering with the spatules 
in close proximity to each other. When in flight, the humming noise produced by 
the wings is great by reason of the short wings of the bird, and is more pronounced 
in the male than in the female. 
One of the most curious habits 
connected with this humming¬ 
bird is that of assembling. Eight 
or ten males, mostly young ones, 
were observed by Stolzmann near 
Tamiapampa to collect in a bare 
and desolate plateau on which 
were no flowers at all, the as¬ 
sembly being apparently merely 
for manoeuvres. Two young 
males would first stop in the air 
opposite to one another, with 
their bodies held vertically, open¬ 
ing their tails and springing first 
to one side and then to the other, 
uttering a little cry each time 
the tail was opened, which the 
observer likened to the noise of 
flipping a finger-nail or snapping 
a watch-case. As a rule, this 
aerial dance is shared by two young males only, but sometimes several take part 
in it, and the note of the female bird is almost always to be heard in the vicinity. 
Sometimes one of the young males hung below a thin branch while another one 
manoeuvred above him, spreading his tail and “ snapping.” Suddenly in a flash 
the positions are reversed, and the suspended bird takes the place of the dancer. 
The old males perform curious antics with the tail, and sometimes actually bring- 
the two rackets close to the crown. Stolzmann has also observed the bird drinking- 
water at a little cascade, of which there are plenty in the country inhabited by 
the Loddigesia ; this being doubtless the only way in which the bird can appease its 
thirst. The cry of the young male and of the female is a tsi-tsi-tsi, rapidly 
repeated while the bird is visiting flowers or executing the manoeuvres described 
above; when seated they are silent, and the voice of the male has not yet been heard. 
Double-Crested This beautiful little species (Heliactin cornuta ) is distinguished by 
Humming-Bird. the glittering tufts over the eyes and wedge-shaped tail, the feathers 
of which are narrowed at the end into a blunt point. The colour is a shining 
grass-green, metallic greenish blue on the crown, and inclining to golden on the 
VOL. iv .—3 
