loo The Ottawa Naturalist. [July 



This appears to be a mountain loving- species, which does not 

 penetrate far above our southern border, though, if mountains were 

 the longed-for home, British Columbia ought surely to be able to 

 attract them in vast numbers; yet it appears to go only some 3 or 

 4 degrees north of the 49th parallel. At Fort Klamath, Oregon, 

 Capt. Bendire found it in enormous abundance in the vernal migra- 

 tions and is sure that there must have been 1000 birds to the acre 

 on one occasion. These were about three-fourths Calliope and 

 one-fourth Rufous Hummers. It is reported to breed at from 

 4000 to 8000 feet elevation in the pines on the edges of the moun- 

 tain meadows and parks. It places the nest on a twig of Pinus 

 contorta [Murrayana) 8 to 15 feet from the ground, usually on or 

 beside a bunch of cones, and the nest itself so closely simulates 

 the appearance of a cone that it would readily be taken for one of 

 the bunch. 



A nest found in Nevada was built on a knot of rope which 

 was hanging from an outhouse, and by covering the outside with 

 bits of bark, pieces of wood and flakes of whitewash the nest was 

 made to look like the knot on the rope and did not resemble a 

 pine cone at all. 



I have a specimen shot by my brother, Mr. F. A. Saunders, 

 late in July of 1892 at Agassiz, B.C., which is a hint that in the 

 northern part of its range it nests at a lower elevation than in the 

 southern. 



With all these species living- in British Columbia, it seems 

 strange that only one ever visits the eastern part of the continent. 

 That one, however, has a breeding range exceeded by but few 

 birds, extending from Florida to Labrador, and in the interior as 

 far north as Lat, 57, more than 550 miles north of the 49th 

 parallel, giving to its range a total of over 1000 miles of latitude 

 in Canada alone. 



This species is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, a well 

 known favorite throughout Ontario, where it visits every flower 

 garden to suck the sweets and catch the small insects living in 

 the flowers. With us it is not very common, for, though a good 

 garden may attract Hummers a dozen times in an afternoon, yet 

 these will probably consist of but 3 or 4 individuals, and, when one 



