. THE CALLIOPE HUMMII^GBIED. 221 



tor tlieiii, T Iiiid HO fiinlicr diiliciilty in liiidiiig- their nests, jiiid all of those 

 ohserved by me were built in exactly similar situations. I succeeded in obtain- 

 ing' three sets of nearly fresh eggs, and found a number of other nests containing 

 young- during the next few days. They were usually placed (Ui or against a 

 dry cone on small dead lindis of Phius cui/foiiti, from S to If) feet from the 

 g-round, and on account of the brittle natui-e of these limbs they were rather 

 hard to secui-e. The nests, while outwardly not as handsome as those of the 

 majority of om- Hunnners, are nevertheless marvels of ingenuity, all those I have 

 seen mimicking a small dead pine cone so perfectly as to almost defy detection 

 miless one sees the bird fly on or ott" the nest. The majoritv found were sad- 

 dled on one or two such cones, or on a small lindj and resting against the sides 

 ot a cone. The outer walls are composed of bits of bark and small shreds of 

 cone, and the interior cup is softl}- luied with willow down. An average nest 

 measures about 1^ inches in outer diameter by the same in depth; the inner cuj) 

 being three-quarters of an inch in width by one-half iiicli in deptli. The nests 

 were generally so placed that the contents were protected by larger liml)s or 

 green boughs above, and at distances ^■arying from 5 to f-J feet from the 

 ground. One I found had a flattened cone projecting directly ovei' it, resembliii"- 

 an tipened umbrella. \\'liile bushy pines seem to constitute their favorite nest- 

 ing sites in northern California and Oregon at least, the\- do not invai'iablv con- 

 fine themselves to such trees. Mr. Shelly W. Denton took a nest of the Calliope 

 Hunmier at Franktown, Washoe County, Nevada, which is now in Mr. William 

 Brewster's collection at Cambridge, ]\Iassachusetts. Mr. Denton watched the bii'd 

 while building it. This is composed interiorly of fine moss and willow down, and 

 the outer walls are decorated with tiny shreds of bark, fine flakes of wood, and 

 flakes of whitewash, fastened securely with cobwebs; it was placed on a knot in 

 a rope hanging from the roof of a woodshed and within 5 feet of an occupied 

 dwelling house. The materials out of which the nest is composed closely assim- 

 ilate the rope and knot on which it is placed. This nest ccmtained two eggs ou 

 June 8, 1887, these being deposited ou alternate days. The male was never 

 seen about the nest. • The rope (one-third of an inch thick) hung down about 4 

 feet, so that every time the female settled on the rim of the nest while building 

 she caused it to swing back and forth like a pendulum. This specimen, which I 

 have seen, does not resemble the nests taken by me very closeh', and the Cal- 

 liope Hunnner evidently attempts to mimic the immediate surroundings as nearly 

 as practicable. Mr. Walter E. Bryant records another, built u])()n a projecting 

 s])linter of a woodpile, at a height of 5 feet.' 



The only eggs of this sjtecies in the United States National Museum col- 

 lection are those taken by the late Ca^jt. John Feilner, United States Army, near 

 Pitt River, California, in June, 1859, and tlu-ee sets collected by myself near Fort 

 Klamath, Oregon. They resemble the eggs of our better known Hunnningljirds 

 in shape and color, but are smaller. 



'Bulletin of tlie California Academy of Sciences, 1887, p. 452. 



