BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



which are now and then with us in the winter season. They 

 are northern birds, nesting in the mountains and visiting us 

 erratically during the winter months. I have generally found 

 them in the tops of the alder trees in the canons, chattering in a 

 sprightly fashion, full of animation in their manners, and in 

 general doing all in their power to atone for an exceptionally 

 plain garb. Above and below they are streaked with white 

 and brownish, varied with a touch of pale yellow on the edge 

 of the wings, and sometimes with a patch of the same on the 

 upper tail-coverts. 



Upon some mild day in February, when the willows are 

 blossoming by the streams and the linnet has commenced his 

 joyous song in anticipation of the love-making which the genial 

 day suggests, let us walk over the hills and see what life is 

 abroad. The wild currant has already hung its aromatic pink 

 clusters of bloom where the spring breezes may sway them, 

 and the rufous hummer, that tiny rover who left for the tropics 

 in the autumn, has found them out. I hear his fine, high, pen- 

 etrating, chattering note, so different from the familiar squeak- 

 ing sound of Anna's hummer, which has been with us all 

 winter. Looking among the blossoms I see this smallest of our 

 birds busily at work, hovering over one blossom after another 

 in its search for honey and insect life. It may be easily dis- 

 tinguished from its resident cousin by its smaller size and by 

 the general rufous coloring, both on the back and the side of 

 the breast. The male bird has a throat-patch of coppery red, 

 while the throat of Anna's hummer is of an amethyst hue. Al- 

 though the rufous hummer is so easily distinguished from our 

 larger resident species, it is practically impossible to tell it 

 from Allen's hummer. The only infallible mark of distinction 



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