374 
PERCHING BIRDS. 
Banana-Quit. 
The habits of this, the figured species, have been best described 
by Gosse, in his work on the Birds of Jamaica. Scarcely larger 
than the average size of the humming-birds, this little creeper is often seen in 
company with them, probing the same flowers and for the same purpose, but 
in a very different manner. “ Instead of hovering in front of each blossom, a task 
for which its short wings would be utterly incompetent, the banana-quit alights 
on the tree, and proceeds in the most business-like manner to peep into the flowers, 
hopping actively from twig to twig, and throwing the body into all positions, 
often clinging by the feet with the back downwards, the better to reach the 
interior of a blossom, with its curved beak and pencilled tongue. The minute 
insects which are always found in the interior of flowers are the objects of his 
search and the reward of its perseverance. Unsuspectingly familiar, these birds 
often resort to the blossoming shrubs of gardens and yards. A large moringa 
tree, that is profusely set all the year through with fragrant spikes of bloom, 
is a favourite resort of both these and the humming-birds. One within a few feet 
of my window is, while I write this note, being actively scrutinised by two active 
little creatures, that pursue their examination with a zeal perfectly undisturbed 
by my looking on, while the same blossoms are rifled on one side by a minute 
humming-bird, and on the other by that gorgeous butterfly, Urania sloaneus —an 
interesting association. The quit often utters a soft, sibilant note as it peeps 
about. The nest of this bird is very frequently, perhaps usually, built in those 
low trees and bushes from whose twigs depend the paper nests of the brown 
wasps, and in close contiguity with them. The grass-quits are said to manifest 
the same predilection; it is a singular exercise of instinct, almost of reason, for 
the object is doubtless the defence afforded by the presence of the formidable 
insects, but upon what terms the league of amity is contracted between the neigh¬ 
bours I am ignorant. It is in the months of May, June, and July that the creeper 
performs the business of incubation. On the 4tli of May I observed a banana-quit 
with a bit of silk-cotton in her beak, and on searching found a nest just commenced 
in a sage-bush. The structure, though but a skeleton, was evidently about to be 
a dome, and so far was constructed of silk-cotton. Since then I have seen several 
completed nests. One before me is in the form of a globe, with a small opening 
below the side. The walls are very thick, composed of dry grass, intermixed 
irregularly with down.” The eggs are greenish white, speckled with reddish at 
the larger end. In colour the upper-parts of this species are dark brown, with a 
conspicuous white eyebrow; the breast and the rest of the under-parts being 
bright yellow. 
H. A. MACPHERSOK 
[Note. —The account of those families to which an asterisk is prefixed has been entirely or in great part 
written by the Editor.] 
