456 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



In California, south of San Francisco, this species was also observed, by 

 Dr, Cooper, to be a constant resident in mild winters, remaining among the 

 foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, at least fifteen hundred feet above the sea. 

 There he has found them quite common in February. At that season flow- 

 ers, and consequently insects, are more abundant than in the dry summers. 

 The males are in fine plumage early in January. 



Dr. Cooper states that the nests of this species are built at various heights 

 and positions, often in gardens, and sometimes on dead branches, without 

 any attempt at concealment except the outside covering of lichens. He 

 has found them made almost wholly of mosses, with only a lining of 

 feathers and down of plants. In the neighborhood of San Francisco the 

 young are sometimes hatched as early as the middle of March. This species 

 appears to be more hardy than the others, being common along the coast 

 border, though Dr. Cooper saw none near the summits of the Sierra Ne- 

 vada. 



The notes of the male bird, he states, are like the sound produced by the 

 filing of a saw or the whetting of a scythe. They enter familiarly into the 

 city of San Francisco, and even venture into rooms, attracted by the flowers. 

 They are bold and confident, approach to within a few feet of man, but at 

 the least motion disappear like a flash. 



Dr. Heermann fou"nd this species quite common at San Diego in March, 

 and in its full spring plumage. In September he procured a number of 

 specimens on a small island in the Cosumnes Eiver. While on the wing 

 in pursuit of insects, or after alighting on a small branch, he heard them 

 utter a very weak twitter, continued for a minute or more. 



A nest of this species from Petaluraa is about 1.50 inches in diameter, 

 and 1.00 in height, and bears no resemblance to the one described by Nut- 

 tall. It is made of a commingling of mosses and vegetable down, covered 

 externally with a fine yellow lichen. The eggs measure .60 by .40 of an 

 inch, and are about ten per cent larger than those of any other North 

 American Humming-Bird. 



Another nest of this Humming-Bird, obtained in Petaluma, Cal., by Mr. 

 Emanuel Samuels, measures 1.75 inches in diameter, and about 1.00 in 

 height. Its cavity is one inch in diameter at the rim, and half an inch in 

 depth. Its lining is composed of such soft materials that its limits are not 

 well defined. The base of the nest is made of feathers, mosses, and lichens 

 of several varieties of the smaller kinds. The periphery and rim of the nest 

 are of nearly the same materials. The inner fabric consists of a mass of a 

 dirty-white vegetable wool, with a lining of the very finest and softest of 

 feathers, intermingled with down from the seeds of some species of silk- 

 weed. The predominant lichen in the base and sides of the nest is the 

 Ramalina menziesii, which is peculiar to California. The nest contained a 

 single egg. 



