464 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The male bird is very i)ugnacious, and was observed to attack and drive 

 away an Aveipiter fuscus, the Hawk retreatin<; as rapidly as possiljle. When 

 the nest is approached, the male often rises hi.sj;h into the air and then sweejis 

 down almost to the liead of llie intruder, its swift descent being accompa- 

 nied by a very iieculiar shrill, screecliing buzz, of an extraoi'dinary degree 

 of loudness to lie produced by so suiall a creature. The same sound Mr. 

 Ridgway noticed when the l>inl was passing overhead, in a manner not ob- 

 served in any other species, its liorizontal flight being by a peculiar undu- 

 lating course. The shrill noise made by the male of this species he suggests 

 may be caused by the curious attenuated and stiffened outer j^rimary. He 

 noticed a curious piece of ingenuity in nest-making on the part of this species. 

 The nest in question was fastened upon a dead twig of a small cottonwood- 

 tree ; the loosening bark, wdiich probably had separated after the nest was 

 finished, had allowed the nest to turn around so as to hang beneath the 

 branch, thus spilling the eggs upon tlie ground. Tlie owners, however, built 

 another nest upon the top of the liraneli, fastening its sides to that of the 

 old one, and making tlie new nest ligliter and less bulky, so iliat tlie weight 

 of the older nest kept the other in a permanently upright position. 



Genus ATTHIS, Reichenbach. 



AWiis, Reich. Cab. Jour. f. Oni. exiKiln-lt fiir 1853, 1854. Appendi.x B. (Tj-pe, Ornys- 



mi/a htlolia, Les.son, Del.) 



Gen. Cii.vi!. Size very diminutive ; bill short, scarcely longer than the head. Outer 

 primary attenuated nearly as in Selasphorus ; the tail graduated, the feathers, however, 



not lanceolate-acute, but rounded at end, and tipped with 

 white in the male. 



Tliis genus seems closely related to Selaspho- 

 rus, agreeing in character of throat, the curious 

 attenuation of outer primary, and the general 

 shape of the tail, witii its rufous base and edg- 

 ing. The featliers, however, are not lanceolate 

 and pointed, either sharply as in .S^. rufm, or ob- 

 tusely as in philjicercuf^, but are more eijual to near the end, where they round 

 off. Tlie «hite tip of tlie tail in the male seems to l)e the principal reason 

 why Mr. (iould removes the single s])ecies from Sclasplwrus, where it was 

 previously placed by him, and where perhaps it might have not inappropri- 

 ately remained. 



Atthis heloi&a. 



