EIEFFER'S HUMMINGBIRD 443 



lion afield to gather soft materials. To this may be added the hmn- 

 mingbird's passion for bringing more down to a nest in which incu- 

 bation is already in progress and which is already quite adequately 

 lined. The presence of eggs did not render a nest sacred to other 

 hummingbirds, which sometimes continued to tear away material 

 until they fell to the ground. 



One unfortunate Rieffer's hummingbird, which tried to establish 

 a nest in a cashew tree growing in a corner of our yard, was so 

 unpeded in her efforts to build by the thievery of her neighbors that 

 at the end of a month of fairly continuous effort she had nothing to 

 show for her labor. With the usual attachment of her kind to one 

 particular location, she tried to build only in the cashew tree and 

 an avocado tree standing close beside it. A removal to a more 

 distant site might have brought her better fortune. In these two 

 trees she made at least 12 fresh beginnings of her nest, each of which 

 was in a short time more or less completely obliterated. The be- 

 havior of this bird is recorded in detail in my article in The Auk 

 (Skutch, 1931) ; and to this the reader must be referred. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Eastern Mexico, Central America, and northwestern South 

 America ; casual in southern Texas ; nonmigratory. 



Rieffer's hummingbird ranges north to northern Veracruz (Tam- 

 pico) ; and British Honduras (Orange Walk and Corosal). East to 

 British Honduras (Corosal and Belize) ; Honduras (Tela and La 

 Ceiba) ; Nicaragua (Matagalpa, La Libertad, and Bluefields) ; Pan- 

 ama (Gatun and Barro Colorado Island) ; western Venezuela 

 (Chama) ; central Colombia (Puerto Berrio, Bogota, and Fusu- 

 gasugo) ; and western Ecuador (Perucho, Babohoyo, and Chimbo). 

 South to Ecuador (Chimbo) ; Costa Rica (Boruca, Puntarenas, and 

 Barranca) ; and southwestern Guatemala (Santa Lucia). West to 

 Guatemala (Santa Lucia) ; western Tabasco (Teapa) ; eastern Oaxaca 

 (Choapan, Playa Vincente, and Tuxtepec) ; and Veracruz (Orizaba, 

 Cordoba, and Tampico). 



The birds found in Ecuador have been described as a geographic 

 race or subspecies. 



The claim of this species to a place in the list of birds of the United 

 States rests upon two specimens captured at Fort Brown, Tex., in 

 June and July 1876. 



Egg dates. — Central America, Caribbean lowlands from Panama to 

 Guatemala : 24 records, January to December, covering every month. 



Costa Rica, Pacific slope, 3,000 feet: 6 records, November 7 to 

 January 9. Caribbean slope, 4,500 feet : 1 record (nestlings) , Novem- 

 ber 3. 



