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Show 676 MR. WHITELY ON PERUVIAN HUMMING-BIRDS. [Dec. 1, OREONYMPHA NOBILIS. The first specimen of this bird I obtained was at Tinta; but I have since found it in this province, and also on the highroad from Tinta to Cuzco. How strange it seems, after so many years have passed since the discovery of Peru, and so many distinguished people have travelled over the same road, that they have never made mention nor obtained a specimen of this really beautiful bird. Its flight is very peculiar. It takes a flight from one flower in the direction of another, perhaps some two or three hundred yards off, and all of a sudden comes to a dead stop, throws the body up vertically, the tail being spread out, and the beautiful crown and beard glittering in the sunshine. This action is frequently repeated in the passage from one flowering shrub to another, evidently for the purpose of taking insects in the air. This is one of the few Humming-birds where colour is seen to great advantage. In most of the species it is never seen till the bird is shot; this is especially observable in Aglaactis castelnaudi, where male and female are adorned with a tuft of white feathers on the breast, and it is impossible to distinguish male from female in the living state. BOURCIERIA INCA. This is another most beautiful species, and its habits and flight quite distinct from all others. And now, whilst speaking about flight, it would not be out of place to record m y own observations on the subject; for almost all naturalists are agreed that in most of the species the flight is exactly similar; but from this opinion I must beg to differ, as when a Humming-bird flies past m e I can tell in a moment if it is new to m e by the manner of its flight. B. inca is found in the wooded lunas on the eastern slopes of the Andes, at an elevation of 10,000 feet, and principally resorts to a shrub which grows to the height of ten or twelve feet, bearing beautiful bunches of red wax-like flowers. In one of these bunches there may be perhaps eighty or a hundred distinct flowers; and the bird appears to visit each in succession without missing a single flower, and, from the length of time it necessarily takes hovering over one of the bunches, is easily shot. But of the whole family of Humming-birds it is perhaps the most conspicuous on the wing, with its beautiful plumage of green, with the patch of chestnut on tbe breast, and the white feathers in the tail. Its flight is very rapid *. Cuzco, Peru. April 22nd, 1874. * The following is a complete list of the species of Humming-birds of which specimens have been sent home by Mr. Whitely, with references to his notes upon them in this and his former papers added.-P. L. S. Phaethornis guyi, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 189. superciliosus, P.Z.S. 1873, p. 188. Aphantochroa hyposticta, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 189. Oreotrochilus estellw, P. Z. S. 1867, p. 987. Iolcema whitclyana, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 188. Panoplites matthewsi, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 784. Acestrura mulsanti, supra, p. 675. |