CAI.LIOPE HUMMINGBIRD 421 



that of the female is less than 3 inches. But it is a hardy little 

 midget and a long-distance traveler, migrating from northern Brit- 

 ish Columbia to Mexico City ; it spends its summers in the Canadian 

 zones at high altitudes in the mountains and at lower levels farther 

 north. 



Its generic name was well chosen, SteTkda^ little star, for the long, 

 narrow, metallic purple feathers rise and spread, under excitement, 

 above the snow-white background of the gorget, like a scintillating 

 star. The choice of the specific name, calliope^ was not so fortunate ; 

 Calliope was the muse of eloquence, and this is a very silent bird. 



At least throughout the southern portion of its breeding range, and 

 to some extent farther north, the calliope hummingbird is essentially 

 a mountain species, though it breeds in the lower valleys and near sea 

 level in some of the more northern portions of its range. Dawson 

 (1923) says that in California — 



it is essentially a mountain-loving species, and is, so far as we have been able 

 to prove, the only breeding Hummer of the higher Sierran slopes. There is 

 a 3000 foot record, by Stephens, of a nest in the San Beruardinos; but 4000 is 

 the usual minimum, and 8000 a better average. In the Canadian zone, there- 

 fore, the bird knows no restrictions, save that it does not favor the densely 

 timbered sections. In the Sierras it nests nearly up to timber line, 10,000 to 

 11,500 feet, and follows the advancing season to the limit of flowers. * * * 

 A bit of heather on a northern peali, where we camped at an elevation of 

 8,000 feet, yielded thirty-two species of plants in conspicuous bloom within a 

 stone's throw of the breakfast table. 



Elsewhere (Dawson and Bowles, 1909) he says: "We have found it 

 commonly in the northern and eastern portions of Washington at 

 much lower altitudes, and have taken its nest in the Burning Gorge 

 of the Columbia at an altitude of only six hundred feet." 



James B. Dixon writes to me : "In the San Bernardino country it 

 was a rare breeder at elevations from 6,000 to 8,500 feet above sea 

 level, and there it nested along the stream beds where water ran all 

 summer. In the Mono Basin they were found along rumiing streams, 

 generally in the aspen thickets, but sometimes out in the open forests 

 high on the mountain sides and some distance from running water; 

 they were much more common, however, in the aspen groves." 



Ealph Hoffmaim (1927) writes: "The flowering shrubs and vines 

 about dwellings attract nearly all the different hummingbirds of the 

 coast. One species, however, still keeps to the natural gardens on 

 mountain slopes, where Indian paint-brush, mountain heather and 

 columbine splotch the springy slopes with red, or wild currant forms 

 extensive thickets. Here the little Calliope Hummer, the smallest 

 and most delicately adorned of them all, flashes the lavender streaks 

 on its gorget as it chases off some rival or pursues a female." 



J. A. Munro (1919) says that in the Okanagan Valley, British Co- 



