396 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



September 12; Colorado Springs, September 21. New Mexico — 

 Apache, October 5. 



Casual records. — A specimen was collected at Mount Vernon, Oreg., 

 on June 30, 1915, and another was seen at Enterprise on July 27, 

 1921; one was taken at Big Butte, Idaho, on July 19, 1890, and one 

 was seen at Spencer on July 9, 1916 ; in Montana one was obtained at 

 Chico in 1902, M'hile two have been taken in Glacier National Park, 

 one on May 23 and the other on June 17, 1895 ; a pair were reported 

 as seen daily between August 18 and 22, 1906, at Glen, Nebr., and one 

 was collected at Kearney on July 22, 1914. 



Egg dates. — Arizona: 20 records, May 8 to July 30; 10 records, 

 June 11 to July 16, indicating the height of the season. 



Colorado : 18 records. May 22 to July 17 ; 9 records, June 13 to 26. 



Utah : 10 records, June 6 to July 23. 



SELASPHORUS RUFUS (Gmelin) 



RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD 



Plates 6.5-67 



HABITS 



Although I have always considered Costa's hummingbird to be the 

 most beautiful of our North American hummingbirds, on account of 

 the charming colors reflected in its crown and gorget, it must yield 

 the palm for brilliancy to the rufous hummingbird and its near 

 relative, Allen's. The brilliant scarlet of the rufous hummer's gorget, 

 which often glows like burnished gold, puts it in the front rank 

 as a gleaming gem, a feathered ball of fire. It is not only fiery 

 in appearance, but it has a fiery temper and makes things lively for 

 any rivals near its feeding stations ot its nest. 



It ranges farther north than any of our other hummingbirds, 

 breeding from about latitude 61° N. in Alaska and southern Yukon 

 southward to Oregon and southwestern Montana. It is exceed- 

 ingly abundant from the Rocky Mountains westward on its migra- 

 tions to and from its wdnter home in southern Mexico. And it 

 may yet be found breeding at high elevations in some of the moun- 

 tain ranges south of its present known breeding range. Henshaw 

 (1886) was perhaps mistaken in assuming that this hummer was 

 breeding in the region of the upper Pecos Eiver in New Mexico, 

 though he states that it was abundant at altitudes of from 8,000 to 

 9,000 feet "during the entire summer"; but he found only one nest, 

 "and this after it was deserted." Mrs. Bailey (1928) says: "There 

 seems to be no known instance of the Rufous Hummingbird nesting 

 in Arizona, Colorado, or New Mexico, though the species has been 

 included in the breeding lists of these States for the last thirty 



