NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 83 



only difference noticed are the relative variations in size. The nests are 

 generally saddled upon a horizontal branch, are cup-like in shape and are 

 mostly made up of various kinds of soft vegetable down, and in nearly all 

 cases covered on the outside with a coating of lichens or mosses. The 

 nest of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is a beautiful structure. It is 

 felted with a mass of exquisitely soft, cottony, silky, or wooly substances, 

 such as the down from the stems of plants, and is artistically covered on 

 the outside with lichens. It is usually placed on a horizontal limb of a 

 forest or orchard tree. Several specimens before me are placed on branches 

 that were slanting, and the nests rest on small forks. A very fine one 

 measures, outwardly, one and three fourths inches broad by one and a half 

 deep. Nests saddled on thick limbs are usually larger. I have observed that 

 in Ohio the Ruby throat prefers nesting in the branches of the buckeye to 

 all other trees. The birds are especially abundant about this tree when it 

 is in full blossom early in May. 



Hab. Eastern North America, especially United State"; in summer, 



336. Black-chinned Hummingbird — trochilus alexandri. This 

 Hummingbird nests in more open ground than the Rufous or Anna's, 

 placing the structure usually on the branches of oaks and sycamores. It 

 is composed of the web or down found on the under side of the leaves of 

 the sycamore ; the effect is that the nest looks like a small round yellow 

 sponge. Eggs same as those of the Ruby-throat. 



Hab. California, Utah, Arizona and probably other portions of Southwestern United States. 



337. Costa's Hummingbird — calypte cost.«. In California this spe- 

 cies deposits its eggs in May and June, and the nest and eggs are simi- 

 lar to those of Anna's Hummingbird. 



Hab. Arizona, Southern California, and Southward. 



338. Anna's Hummingbird — calypte ann^. Anna's Humming-bird 

 is a common resident of California; its nest and eggs can be found 

 almost any time in May and June. It builds in trees, and is not particular 

 what kind or where they are situated ; on hillside, creek, in orchard or 

 garden. The nest is composed of thistle-down and willow-cotton, with 

 occasionally a few small feathers and bits of flower stems; on the outside 

 moss well covered with spider webs, with here and there pieces of lichens. 

 Eggs same as those of T. cohibris, but averge larger. Ten nests before 

 me have the same general resemblance. 



339. Broad-tailed Hummingbird — selasphorus platycercus. This 

 Hummer builds a beautiful little nest so well covered with lichens as to 

 look exactly like a knot on the branch on which it is placed. In Colorado it 



