408 BULLETIN 17G, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



young hummer that he was watching and slightly wound it ; it might 

 have killed it, if he had not driven it away. The mother of this young 

 bird disappeared mysteriously, and he suspected a weasel might have 

 been the cause. 



Fall. — The fall migration from its breeding grounds in Alaska 

 starts early, and sometimes these hummers wander out over the ocean. 

 S. F. Kathbun tells me that on July 20, 1914, while he was crossing 

 the Gulf of Alaska and was just within sight of land, off Nespina 

 Glacier, a male rufous hummingbird came aboard and alighted on 

 one of the stays of the ship's stack. It showed no alarm, and after 

 about 15 minutes it flew off toward the land. 



After the breeding season the summer wanderings of this hum- 

 mingbird extend well up into the mountains, even in Washington. 

 On Mount Rainier, on August 6, Taylor and Shaw (1927) saw in- 

 dividuals flying over the glaciers at 6,000 and at 9,000 feet altitude. 

 "We were now hung, as it were, between earth and heaven, 2,500 feet 

 above timber line. The water supply froze shortly after 5 o'clock 

 p. m., and the midsummer breeze w^as cold and cheerless. What was 

 our surprise to find the hummers still with us. One whizzed past 

 us as we were making camp, and two more were observed the follow- 

 ing morning." 



On the southward migration through the Rocky Mountain region, 

 the rufous hummingbird is sometimes very abundant at high alti- 

 tudes, wherever it can find flowers in bloom ; it has been seen as high 

 as 12,600 feet on Truchas Peak in the Upper Pecos region, N. Mex., 

 according to Mrs. Bailey (1904). Henshaw (1886), writing of this 

 same region, says : 



The number of representatives of this and the preceding species that malce 

 their summer homes in tliese moinitains is simply beyond calculation. No one 

 whose experience is limited to the Eastern United States can form any ade- 

 quate idea of their abundance. They occur from an altitude of about 7,500 feet 

 far up on the mountain sides, as high up, in fact, as suitable flowers afford 

 them the means of subsistence. They are most numerous at an altitude of 

 from 8,000 to 9,000 feet. During the entire summer they frequent almost 

 exclusively a species of Scrophnlaria which grows in clumps in the sunnier spots 

 in the valleys. From early dawn till dusk the Hummingbirds throng around 

 these plants intent in surfeiting themselves on honey and the minute insects that 

 the honey attracts. The scene presented in one of these flowering areas is a 

 most attractive one. * * * 



Some idea of the number of Hummingbirds in this locality — and in this 

 respect this whole moiintain area is alike — may be gained from the statement 

 that in a single clump of the ScropJiularia I have counted eighteen Hummers, 

 all within reach of an ordinary fishing rod. There was scarcely a moment in the 

 day when upwards of fifty could not be counted within an area of a few yards 

 in any of the patches of this common plant. 



Mr. Swarth (1904) says of its appearance in the Huachuca Moun- 

 tains, Arizona : "I have not seen this species at any time in the spring, 



