Hummingbird WESTERN BIRDS 



with bronzy lights on back, and the throat sometimes 

 has a narrow streak of the orange-red. The middle tail 

 feathers are green nearly to the base, while the outer 

 ones have blackish bands, tipped with white. The young 

 males resemble the female, but the feathers of the upper 

 parts are edged with rusty color, rump rufous, and throat 

 red-specked. The young females have the rump green 

 and throat specked with green. 



The nest of the Rufous Hummingbird is a beautiful 

 little affair, made of plant down and fine mosses, bound 

 together with spider webs and decorated with lichens. 

 They may be placed on ferns, bushes, fir, or other trees; 

 in fact, like most members of this family there is no 

 accounting for location. Sometimes they nest in small 

 colonies. 



J. H. Bowles tells us that in Washington they nest as 

 early as the middle of April, but that nests are also 

 found in July, making it seem probable that two broods 

 are raised by one pair of birds. 



The male shirks household duties, as do others of 

 this family. In fact, there seems to be little difference 

 in the ways and habits of all of these tiny birds. 



GENUS SELASPHORUS: ALLEN'S 

 HUMMINGBIRD. 



Allen's Hummingbird: Seldsphorus dlleni. 



FAMILY— HUMMINGBIRDS. 



One cannot help wondering just why Nature needed to 

 have made another Hummingbird which is quite similar 

 to Rufous but enough different to warrant another name. 

 This bird — the Allen Hummingbird — differs from the 

 preceding species chiefly in its green back and crown, 

 which has caused it to be sometimes called the Green- 



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