HUMMINGBIRDS 



179 



white, the inner webs of primaries passing into pale 

 grayish-brown on edges (except on longer (jiiills) ; 

 a dusky spot immediately in front of eye, the lural 

 region otherwise whitish ; the region around the ear 

 and back of the eye, sooty grayish-brown ; the regions 

 below the eye and cheek, chin, tliroal, clirsi, and center 

 portion of breast and abdomen U'liite, usually tinged 

 with brownish: sides and flanks (broadly) and under 

 tail-coverts, plain very dark sooty-brown or sooty- 

 black; feathers along edge of wing broadly margined 

 with pale grayish-brown or dull brownish-white; iris, 

 dark brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: Glued to clifT or cave 

 sides or in holes in limestone cliffs; constructed of 

 vegetable fiber and feathers, lined with strips of bark 

 and a few feathers. Hu.s : 4 or 5, pure white, 

 unmarked. 



Distribution. — Western Xorth .'\nicrica; north to 

 W'asliiiiglun, southern Montana, northern British 

 Columbia, and southwestern Alberta, east to western 

 South Dakota, western Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, 

 New Mexico, and western Te.xas (Chisos Mountains), 

 south to Lower California and through Mexico to 

 Guatemala. 



There is no very striking physical resemblance 

 between the White-throated Swift and the jjolar 

 bear, but in one respect they are fortunately 

 alike : neither is, or ever is likely to be, in danger 

 of annihilation by man; the bear because the 

 men who would exterminate him for " sport " or 

 gain ( and these do not include his gentle neigh- 

 bors, the Eskimos) will never invade his habitat 

 in numbers sufficient to threaten his existence ; 

 and the .Swift because its home on the unscalable 

 ]jeak or precipice is equally inaccessible, except 

 jjossibly by flying machines, the use of which for 

 this purpose j)robably would not prove profitable. 

 To be sure, the bird sometimes comes within 

 gunshot and therefore occasionally is " collected," 

 which is to say, shot ; but the tremendous speed 

 and the erratic character of its flight make its 

 " collection " an uncertain occupation. 



Two of its habitats in which it has been ob- 



served, are the lofty clifTs in the Garden of the 

 Gods in Colorado, and the canon walls of the 

 East Humboldt Mountains, in Nevada. In both 

 places it nests in unapproachable crevices and 

 pockets about half-way up sheer cliffs several 

 hundred feet high, or in towering canon walls 

 of much greater altitude. On the wing and at 

 other times the bird utters a spirited chatter. It 

 seems also to be rather belligerent, for two birds 

 have been seen to seize each other while in flight, 

 and hold on, as they dropped together in a whirl- 

 ing fall, until near the ground, when they would 

 relinquish their gri]) and dart away perhaps to 

 resiune the combat as soon as they had reached 

 a safe altitude. 



Unlike Vaux's Swift, the White-throated seems 

 to have no special preference for the evening 

 hours, but does much of its hunting in broad 

 daylight. 



HUMMINGBIRDS 



Order Macrochires ; suborder Trochili; family TrochilidcB 



UIMIMINGBIRDS are small to extremely small birds, with the terminal or 

 hand portion of the wing longer than the portion nearer the body. The 

 neck is very long, forming four-sevenths of the vertebral column. The bill 

 is slender, usually awl-shaped, sometimes compressed and often widened and 

 deepened at the base, extremely variable as to relative length (from decidedly 

 shorter than the head to longer than the head, neck, and body together), 

 usuallj- straight, but sometimes excessively curved downward. The tongue 

 is extremely long, slender, capable of extension, split at the tip, each division 

 with the outer edge curled upward and inward for part of its length, forming, 

 in effect, two parallel tubes. The tail is excessively variable in relative length 

 and form — in fact more variable than in any other group of birds. 

 The nest is open above, is variable as to form and position, but usually cup-shaped 

 and attached to a twig, and is composed of plant-downs or other soft materials, usually 

 stuccoed exteriorly with bits of moss, lichen, or fragments of barks and spiders' webs. The 

 eggs are usually two in number, but sometimes only one, immaculate white in color, and 

 broadly elliptical in shape. 

 Vol. II — 13 



