398 BULLETIISr 176, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



On two occasions, in May, 1925, and May, 1926, I witnessed in connection 

 with the above performance what I believe to be the actual mating of the 

 birds. After one or two towering flights by the male, the female rose from 

 her perch and the male immediately closed with her. Then over a distance of 

 some ten or twelve feet, and horizontally, they swung together backwards and 

 forwards through the air, just as one often sees insects so doing. The regular 

 swinging hum of the wings is hard to describe but is just what one might 

 expect. So fast is this swinging flight, and so close was I, not over four or 

 five feet away in one instance, that I was totally unable to see the birds except 

 as a blurred streak of color. As the flight ceased I saw them separate, and 

 in one instance the female was seen to fall to the ground, but later to regain 

 her perch, while the male continued his towering flights. 



Mr. Haskin says in his notes : "Besides the diving act it has another 

 modified performance. In this act the male 'teeters' in the air above 

 the female who is hidden in the grass below. It is like the dive, but 

 the arc is much shorter and flatter — a shallow curve of only 6 or 8 

 inches. The male in this stunt shoots forward with the tail spread 

 and much elevated, followed by a quick backward dart, tail lowered, 

 and twittering and buzzing to his utmost. This is repeated again 

 and again." 



Nesting. — A. Dawes DuBois has sent me some very elaborate notes 

 on the nesting habits and home life of the rufous hummingbird in 

 the vicinity of Belton, Mont, subsequently published by him (1938). 

 The nest that he studied "was five feet from the ground, in a small 

 balsam fir, among the branches of a close-standing birch. It was 

 situated at the bottom of the slope of a foothill. The foothills were 

 wooded chiefly with larch, spruce, hemlock, fir and cedar, and on this 

 particular slope was a growth of birch. It was constructed of soft, 

 cottony, plant materials felted together and thickly covered exte- 

 riorly with lichens held in place by cob-webs." He gives the dimen- 

 sions of the nest as diameter at the rim 1 inch, diameter at the bulge 

 1%5 inside depth %? ^-nd outside depth I14 inches. 



D. E. Brown has sent me the following notes: "The rufous hum- 

 mingbird returns to western Washington by the middle of March and 

 commences nest building a month later. They colonize to a certain 

 extent in favorable localities, and I have seen as many as 10 nests 

 in a small patch of gorse. The nest is near the ground as a rule, but 

 sometimes it is placed higher up in either conifers or deciduous trees. 

 The drooping branches of conifers are favorite sites, the nest often 

 being j^laced on the lowest branch; and a branch that has a sharp 

 downward bend is so well liked that the bird often returns to the 

 same place the next year, and even the third year. A nest built on 

 such a branch is fastened to it from the bottom to the very top, which 

 is built out to level things up. The next year's nest is placed on the 

 old one but securely tied to the stem, and the third nest is built the 

 same way. Double nests are not at all uncommon, and I have seen 

 three where the third nest had been added." 



