444 BULLETIN 17 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



AMAZILIA YUCATANENSIS CHALCONOTA Oberholser 



BUFF-BELLIED HUMMINGBIRD 



HABITS 



This is another Mexican species that extends its range northward 

 into the valley of the lower Rio Grande in Texas. It is the northern 

 form of a species inhabiting eastern Mexico and Yucatan, from the 

 Rio Grande to extreme southeastern Mexico, which has been divided 

 into three subspecies. This race is described by Ridgway (1911) as 

 "similar to A. y. cerviniventris^ but under parts of body much paler 

 (light cinnamon buff to pale pinkish buff) and green of upper parts 

 averaging more bronzy." 



The buff-bellied hummingbird was added to our fauna by Dr. 

 James C. Merrill (1878), who took the first specimen within our 

 borders on the military reservation of Fort Brown, Tex., on August 

 17, 1876. He found it to be an "abundant summer visitor" and says 

 that "it seems perfectly at home among the dense, tangled thickets, 

 darting rapidly among the bushes and creeping vines, and is with 

 difficulty obtained. A rather noisy bird, its shrill cries usually first 

 attract one's attention to its presence." 



While George F. Simmons and I were collecting with R. D. Camp, 

 near Brownsville, Tex., in 1923, Captain Camp told us that this 

 hummingbird had become very rare in that vicinity, but we saw two 

 or three in the tangled thickets along a resaca near town ; they tried 

 unsuccessfully to shoot one, but I could plainly see the long, rufous 

 tail and the buff underparts, which served to identify the species. 

 As many nests have been taken in Cameron County, Tex., this hum- 

 mingbird is probably still rather common in the open woodlands and 

 chaparral thickets in that vicinity, coming out occasionally into the 

 open gardens and about the plantations, though much of its original 

 habitat has been destroj^ed to make room for citrus orchards and 

 vegetable farms. 



Nesting. — The first nest found within the United States is thus 

 described by Dr. Merrill (1878) : "A Hummer's nest, undoubtedly 

 made by this species, was found in September, 1877, within the fort. 

 It was placed on the fork of a dead, drooping twig of a small tree 

 on the edge of a path through a thicket ; it was about seven feet from 

 the ground, and contained the shrivelled body of a young bird. The 

 nest is made of the downy blossoms of the tree on which it is placed, 

 bound on the outside with cobwebs, and rather sparingly covered 

 with lichens." 



Major Bendire (1895) writes: 



I have eight of these nests before me, all taken in Cameron County, Texas, 

 which are readily distinguishable from those of other species breeding in the 

 United States whose nests are known. They are composed of shreds of vege- 



