WESTERN BIRDS Hummingbird 



it immensely if the males would come around just often 

 enough to make our identification unquestionable. 



The courting dance of this sprite, as I have watched 

 it in my own yard is still different from any of the others 

 here recorded. Instead of swinging from side to side, 

 pendulum-fashion as does the Black-chinned, he flattens 

 his little body, flares out his tail, and shoots forward 

 and back before the female with the regularity of a 

 machine-driven device, keeping up the rhythmic drone, 

 which rises and falls as he darts back and forth. The 

 noise is not unlike that made by the Black-chinned. 

 Both are different from anything else, and unmistakably 

 Hummingbird efforts. 



One of these bird midgets once nested in my yard 

 weaving its dainty cup onto the stems of two mulberry 

 leaves. At first the little mother minded my watching 

 her, but after a few days she came and went unmindful 

 of my presence. She had the same restless way as other 

 female Hummingbirds of leaving the nest at frequent 

 intervals, remaining for a few minutes, or sometimes 

 several, before whizzing back and settling in the tiny 

 nest. The little home came to grief just before time 

 for the eggs to hatch and if another nest was built in 

 the yard, I did not find it. 



GENUS SELASPHORUS: BROAD- 

 TAILED HUMMINGBIRD. 



Broad-Tailed Hummingbird: Seldsphorus platy- 

 circus. 



FAMILY— HUMMINGBIRDS. 



In the mountain districts from southern Idaho and 

 southern Wyoming to the Valley of Mexico, and from 

 Nevada to western Nebraska and western Texas, during 



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