October, 1846.] Ill 



I found their nests, as usual, in the knot holes of the evergreen oaks in 

 April. 



Cotyle riparia, Linn. Bank Swallow. 



Common ; burrowing their nests in the sandy banks of small streams and 

 creeks, which have worn deep ravines. 



I also observed another swallow, not far from Monterey, in August, 

 with a deeply forked tail, like our barn swallow, but apparently differently 

 marked. 



Ceryle alcyon, Linn. Kingfisher. 



Common along the whole of the western coast. In California it is never 

 observed to frequent the inland streams and creeks, being exclusively found 

 along the rocky shores and islands. 



Calliphlox rufa, Gmel. Rufous Humming Bird. 



This beautiful little flame bearer is not unfrequent throughout California. 



Calliphlox anna, Less. Anna Humming Bird. 



Trochilus icterocephalus. Nutt. Man. Orn. vol. 1, 2d Ed. p. 712. 



A very abundant and interesting species, numbers passing the winter in 

 California; at such times inhabiting sheltered hill sides and plains, where at 

 all seasons a few bushy plants are in flower, and afford it a scanty subsist- 

 ence. They appear, however, in greater numbers about the latter part of 

 February and during the month of March ; the country is soon carpeted 

 with flowers, and the Anna humming bird, revelling among their sweets, 

 commences the duty of rearing its young. About the Pueblo, the vineyards 

 and gardens are its favourite resort, forming its delicate downy nest in a 

 small flowering bush, or some concealed spot about the fence. In April 

 and May these may be found in almost every garden. 



In other parts it attaches its nest almost exclusively to a low, horizontal 

 branch of the evergreen oak, (Quercus agrifolia) so common throughout the 

 country ; the nest is small, being about an inch in depth and one and a quar- 

 ter in diameter; it is not very thick, and is formed in the most delicate man- 

 ner of pappus and down of various plants, held together and matted into a 

 soft felt with spider's webs, which latter I have frequently observed them 

 collecting for the purpose in the spring along hedges and fence rows, and at 

 first supposed they were only searching them for gnats and small insects 

 which might be entangled, but in a nest which I now have the base is formed 

 of a few dried male aments of the oak, and which with the adjoining felt- 

 like matting of pappus, is agglutinated and bound around the twig with a 

 thick layer of spider's web. The eggs, as usual, are two, white and ellip- 

 tical. The note resembles that of the Rufous humming bird, and is a slender 

 chep, frequently repeated, but during the breeding season they are very 

 pugnacious, and the little combatants dart through the trees, like meteors, 

 uttering a loud and repeated twittering scold. It has the same habit also, 



