THE HUMMING BIRDS. 339 



Bernardino foot-hills, and breeds also ou the Colorado Desert, where 

 its uest was foiiud by Mr. F. Stephens as early as March 18. It winters 

 abundantly in the Cape district of Lower California, but none are 

 said to winter so far north as San Diego. It breeds in the Cape dis- 

 trict, but is much less common there in summer than in winter. In 

 southern Arizona it occurs abundantly during its migrations, and also 

 breeds in those localities, which seem specially adapted to it. 

 Says Mr. W. E. D. Scott* ; 



111 1884 1 did uot meet with the birds iu the Catalinas till late in July, aud thea 

 only sparingly. But iu 1885, in the same locality, the birds were very common by 

 April 5, particularly the males, iu the most gorgeous plumage. The absence of 

 adult females for the next six weeks was very noticeable. I think I took only three, 

 though the males were couimon all the time. About the '20th of May young birds 

 of the year began to be abundaut, and adult birds of either sex were diffiult to find- 

 The youug birds were common all through June; I could often count twenty near 

 my house; but after June 1 1 was uuable to get any adult birds of either sex. I do 

 not think the birds bred iu the Catalinas, but think that probably they did breed in 

 numbers on the San Pedro River. 



Two nests of this species, collected at La Paz, by Mr. Belding, are 

 quite different iu size and shape. Both are ordinary looking structures, 

 composed of dull gray lichens and small pieces of thin bark, held to. 

 gether with spiders' webs, the interior containing a few soft small 

 feathers, in one nest apparently of the summer yellow bird {Dendroica 

 wstiva). The larger nest measures about 1^ inches in diameter by a 

 little more than 1 inch in depth, the cavity being about O.L by 0.80; 

 the smaller one measures about the same iu diameter across the top, 

 but is much narrower at the bottom, is less than 1 inch high, aud has 

 a shallower cavity with much thinner walls. Each contains a single 

 egg, one measuring 0.30 by 0.50, the other 0.32 by 0.50. The identifica- 

 tion is positive, the parent bird accompanying each nest. One of these 

 females has a very large spot or patch of metallic violet on the throat, 

 while the other has instead only a few dusky specks. 



Gknus SELASPHORUS Swainson. 



Selasphorus Swains., Fauna Bor.-Am. II. 1831, 324, aud 4'J(j. Type, Trochilus rufm 

 Gmel. 



Generic Ciilracteks.— Adult males with the tail-feathers partly 

 rufous, the outer primary narrow and pointed (except in three of 

 the Central American species t), aud the tail more or less graduated, 

 with some of the feathers, at least, more or less pointed; top of head 

 greenish, or at least not similar in color to the gorget (except in S. 

 fioresii). 



The species of this genus, or subgenus, differ so much among them- 

 selves in points of structure that I am not able to give any better diag- 



*The Auk, Oct., 1886, p. 431. 



t S. torridus Salv., S. ardenn Salv., and S. flamniula Salv., have the tip of the outer 

 primary rouuded. 



