360 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



ing shaft, ciiiuainoii-iiifous, the snbterininal portion (for about 0.30 of 

 an inch) bhick,* the tip (for about O.lo of an inch) white; next feather 

 similar, but with white tip more extensive; outer feather simihir, but 

 A^hite tip still more extensive (about 0.22 long), tlie black correspond- 

 ingly reduced, and no green between the black and the rufous. Broad 

 post-ocular stripe (commencing above the eye), sides of neck, chin, 

 throat, malar region, sides, and flanks uniform light cinnamon-buff, 

 deepest on flanks; chest mixed white and cinnamon-buff; belly white; 

 under tail-coverts pale creamy buff; bill and feet black. Length (skin), 

 3.30; wing, 1.65; tail, 1.10 (middle feathers 0.10 shorter and outer pair 

 0.20 shorter); exposed culmen, 0.80, 



A female (perhaps not adult) from Arizona (No. 72535, near Camp 

 Bowie, August 7, 1874, H. W. Henshaw) is quite similar in coloration 

 to that described above, except that the entire chin and sides of the 

 throat are dull grayish white, only the median portion of the throat 

 (to within about 0.30 of an inch of the chin angle) being cinnamon-buti". 

 Measurements are as follows: Length (skin), 3.35; wing, 1.70; tail, 

 1.00; exposed culmen, 0.85. 



The claim of this heantifiil species [says Mr. Henshaw*] to a place in our fauua 

 rests upon the captiue of a single female near Camp Bowie, Arizona. * * * I re- 

 "■ret that I am unable to give any information respecting either its habits or its rela- 

 tive abundance in Arizona. Probably it is rare, for here, as in certain other points 

 in southern Arizona, the attention of the party was especially directed to the hnm- 

 miiig birds, the occurrence of novelties being rendered more probable by the abun- 

 dance of certain other species, and at Camp Bowie notably by the great number of 

 Trochllns alexandri. The well-known agave plants of this region were here very 

 abundant, and their tall upright stems, surmounted by the short lateral stems, with 

 their spreading bunches of blossoms, dotted the rocky hillsides in every direction 

 and gave a strange, weird aspect to the landscape. Aroncd these humming birds 

 congregated, showing an especial liking for the nectar of the flowers, or possibly 

 finding in them rich storehouses of the minute forms of insect life, which is the chief 

 part of their diet. By taking a station near one of these, one could easily watch the 

 motions of these little feathered gems as they darted to and fro, anil, had any other 

 species been even tolerably numerous, it could scarcely have eluded our attention. 



Fortunately Mr. Gould has been able to give us, in his beautiful 

 Monograph of the Trochilidic (vol. iii, p. 143), a rather full life-history 

 of the Lucifer Humming Bird, which is herewith transcribed : 



This beautiful species, so well known by its trivial name of "Mexican Star," is 

 a denizen of the table-l.iuds of that rich country, Xalapa, the land of perpetual spring 

 and of unsurpassed climate. It was in this fine region that the bird came under the 

 observation of the late Mr. Bnllock, to whom we are indebted for all that is known 

 respecting it, and which is comprised in the following extracts from his Six Months 

 in Mexico: 



"The house I resided in at Xalapa for several weeks was only one story high, in- 

 closing, like most of the Spanish houses, a small garden in the center, the roof pro- 

 jecting G or 7 feet from the walls, covering a walk all around and leaving a small 

 space only between the tiles and the trees which grew in the center. From the 



* There is a small space of metallic green separating the rufous from the black. 

 tZoiilogy of Wheeler's Survey, 1875, p. '682. 



