THE OREGON NATURALIST. 
extremely small and covered with a heavy coat 
of downy feathers, rendering them able to 
stand quite severe cold. 
No family of birds is open to mere discuss- 
ion than these, and a rare chance is present for 
the working ornithologist to study family char- 
acteristics. He may study them alike in the 
East or West; for he has the Ruby, represent- 
ing a typical genusif he lives in either Maine 
lives in Ca ifornii he 
has the Broad tail* and many others. So let 
all study them, though the results be small, a 
or Minnesota and if he 
a union of these will make a grand joint in the 
worlds history. STEPHEN J. ADAMS, 
Cornish Me. 
* BROAD-TAILED HUMMING BIRD. 
"RANGE. — Rocky Mountain district of United 
States, north to Wyoming and Utah, west to 
East Humboldt Mountains, Nevada (to eastern 
slope of Sierra Nevada?); breeding as far south 
as Mountains of Arizona and New Mexico; in 
winter soith over table-lind of Mexico to 
highlands of Guatemala, RIDGEWAY. 
BIRDS: (O° LE, UNITED 
SAGES: 
HUMMING 
In the U. S. National Museum Report, 
1890; from ‘*The Hnmming Birds,” by Mr. 
Robert Ridgway, a and 
illustrating the collection 
Museum, the following extract is taken. 
Within the borders of the United States 
only seventeen of Humming Birds 
have been found, and of this n«mber only seven 
describing 
the National 
paper 
in 
species 
can be considered as properly belonging to our 
country, their breeding range being chiefly or 
entirely within our limits. These are the Ruby- 
throated Humming Bird ( 7roch7lus coludris), 
Black-chinned fiumming Bird (7. alexanidr?), 
Anna Humming Bird (Califte anne). Broad- 
tailed Humming Bird ((Sed.sphoves Alatycercits) 
Rufous Humming Bird (S. rzfozs), Allen’s 
Humming Bird (S. @//enz), and Calliope Hum- 
‘ 
105 
ming Bird (St¢ed/ula calliope), Of the remain- 
der six are Mexican species, barely crossing our 
border, follows: Rivoli Humming Bird 
(Eugenes fulsens), 
as 
Blue-throated Humming 
bird (Coeljvena clemenciae), Lucifer Hum- 
mlng Bird (Calatherax luctfer\,  Rieffer’s 
Humming Bird (Amazila Suscicaudata),* 
Buff-beilied Humming Bird (4. ces vin iventr?s), 
and Circe Humming Bird (ache latirostrts), 
One species, Costa’s Humming Bird (Calypte 
cos(@é), iS common .to southern California, 
Lower California, and western Mexico;another, 
Nantus’s Humming Bird (Bastadnna xantus) Neo 
is peculiar to Lower California, and_ therefore 
not belonging to the United States as politic- 
aliy bounded. ‘The two remaining species are 
of uncertain range, one of them, the Violet- 
Bird (Trochilus viola- 
juguum), being known from a single speci- 
throated Humming 
men obtained in southern California, and the 
other, Floresi’s Humming Bird (Selasphorus 
Jloresiv), having been obtained at two wide- 
ly separated points, Bolanos, Mexico, aad San 
Francisco, California, and only one specimen 
at each place, The spccies first mentioned 
above is the only one that belongs to the ex- 
tens.ve region eastof the Rocky Mountains, 
even semi-tropical Florida having hitherto 
failed to produce a single additional species, 
even as a straggler or aecidental wanderer 
It is true that Mr. 
Audubon described and figured in his great 
from more southera lands, 
work a species which he called the Mango 
Humming Bird (77ochi/e: mango), from a 
specimen given him by Dr, Bachman, said to 
have been captured at Key West, Florida; 
but the species} proves to be not even a West 
Indian one, but belongs to Brazil and other 
parts of South America, and possibly was not 
Another 
South American Hummer, the Tobago Hum- 
found at Key West as alleged, 
ming Bird (Agyrtrza tobact) has been record- 
ed as North American on the strength of the 
alleged capture of a specimen at Cambridge, 
Massachusetts; but while the identification js 
correct, there is circumstantial evidence that 
