Todd-Carriker : Birds of Santa Marta Region, Colombia. 261 



coast region of Colombia, extending up the Magdalena Valley as far 

 at least as Aguachica, and westward to the Atrato. Fundacion, where 

 four male specimens were taken in open woodland, is apparently well 

 within the limit of its range, and brings it into the present list. More 

 recently it has been traced into the Rio Rancheria-Rio Cesar Valley, 

 having been detected at Valencia and Fonseca in the summer of 1920. 



206. Thalurania colombica colombica (Bourcier). 



Thahtrania columbica Salvin and Godman, Ibis, 1880, 172 (Minca and San 

 Jose). — Salvin, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., XVI, 1892, 79 (Minca, San Jose, 

 Pueblo Viejo, and Chinchicua Valley). — Bangs, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washing- 

 ton, XII. 1S98, 135 ("Santa Marta"), 174 (San Miguel and Palomina). — 

 Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., XIII, 1900, 141 (Bonda, Onaca, Minca, 

 Cacagualito, Las Nubes, Valparaiso, and El Libano). — Simon. Cat. Fam. 

 Trochilidffi, 1921, 306 (" Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta," in range). 



Thalurania colombica colombica Ridcway, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 50, 

 V, 191 1. 532 (Santa Marta localities and references; meas.). 



Additional records: Chirua, San Francisco, La Concepcion (Brown). 



Thirty-nine specimens: Las Nubes, Onaca, Don Amo, Valparaiso, 

 Cincinnati, Las Taguas, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (6,000 feet), 

 Las Vegas, and Don Diego. 



Immature males, distinguished by their green crowns and dusky and 

 greenish abdomens, with little or no blue, are dated variously from 

 April 10 to July 27. These are in first nuptial dress. 



This well-known species is widely distributed within its range, and 

 is moreover one of the most abundant of the hummingbirds with which 

 the writer is acquainted. Its normal range appears to lie wholly in 

 the Subtropical Zone, but it is continually straggling downwards in 

 search of food wherever the forest descends to lower levels. Mr. 

 Smith got two at Bonda, while the writer took one at Don Diego, prac- 

 tically at sea-level. It is found only in the forest or heavier woodland, 

 and keeps well up in the trees as a rule, although occasionally feeding 

 from some flower in the undergrowth. It is very pugnacious, driving 

 other species away from a favorite tree with the greatest animosity. 

 Perhaps this very trait is one of the reasons for its relative abundance. 



A nest received from Mr. Smith, labeled Onaca, December 19, is 

 of the usual hummingbird type, saddled on the fork of a small branch, 

 and composed of fine plant down, the outside partly covered with 

 licbens. The eggs measure 13.5 X I0 - 



