234 



HUMMINGBIRDS 



Mr. Willard of Tombstone, Arizona, says that the noise made by 

 the wings of the Rivoli hummingbird lacks the sharpness of that of 

 the smaller hummers and compares it to the buzzing of an im- 

 mense beetle or bumblebee. He adds that the male may often be 

 seen near the top of some dead tree catching insects like a flycatcher. 

 Mr. W. W. Price reports that the hummers feed from iris and also 

 agave flowers. In the Chiricahua Mountains Dr. Fisher found them 

 gleaning from the flowers of a boreal honeysuckle. Mr. Price 

 records them only between the altitudes of from 6500 to 9500 feet. 



GENUS CCELIGENA. 



427. Coeligena clemencise Less. BLUE-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. 

 Tail more than two thirds as long- as wing-, slightly rounded, feathers 



very broad ; bill less than one third as long- 

 as wing. Adult male : gorget azure blue ; 

 streak from bill and back of eye white ; up- 

 per parts dull bronzy green, changing- to 

 purplish black on upper tail coverts and 

 tail, outer tail feathers tipped with white ; 

 under parts slate gray washed with green on 

 sides. Adult female : similar, but throat 

 buffy instead of blue. Length: 4.50-5.40, 

 win " 2.90-3.20, tail 1.85-2.20, exposed cul- 

 men .85-1.00. 



Remarks. The females of the blue- 

 throated and the Rivoli can be easily dis- 

 tinguished by the tail, which in the blue- 

 throated is blue black, in the Rivoli largely 

 bronzy green. 



Distribution. Southern Arizona, western 



Texas, and mountains of the tablelands of Mexico to Oaxaca. 



Nest. Fine mosses and oak catkins, bound together with web, placed 



in the fork of a small shrub, or on a fern. (Breniger.) Eggs : 2, white. 



Among the little restless, darting, scintillating hummers of the 

 United States, the big, quiet, sober-colored blue-throats seem more 

 like foreign birds, and really are only visitors across our border from 

 Mexico. Whether bathing in the spray of a slender mountain fall, 

 or feeding from flower to flower, they have a low hum and quiet 

 \vuys, perching frequently on a branch to twitter a little song and 

 preen their feathers, or climbing about among the flowers of a big- 

 agave in search of food in real oriole fashion. VERNON BAILEY. 



GENUS TROCHILUS. 



General Characters. Male with metallic gorget not elongated on the 

 =r~ sides ; tail forked or deeply emarginate, the feathers 

 pointed, but the outside ones not extremely narrow ; 

 six inner primaries abruptly and conspicuously smaller 

 than the rest with their inner web more or less notched 

 or toothed at tip. Females with outer tail feathers concave on side. 





' X 



Froni Ridgway, Smithsonian. 

 Fig. 304. 



