No. 152. 
BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD. 
A. O. U. No. 429. Trochilus alexandri Bourc. & Muls. 
Synonyms.—ALEXANDER HUMMINGBIRD. SPONGE HuMMER. 
Description.—4du/t male: Upperparts including middle pair of tail-feathers 
shining bronzy green; wing-quills and remaining rectrices fuscous with purplish 
reflections ; tail double-rounded, its feathers broadly acuminate, and central pair 
of feathers about .12 shorter than the third pair, the outermost pair shorter than 
middle pair; the gorget chiefly opaque velvety black, on each side of the median 
line a small irregular patch of metallic orange, or else with various jewelled 
iridescence posteriorly ; remaining underparts white, heavily tinged with greenish 
on sides, elsewhere lightly tinged with dusky and dull rufous; bill slender, straight. 
Adult female: Similar to male in coloration but without gorget, a few dusky 
specks instead ; tail different, single-rounded, central feathers like back in colora- 
tion, and scarcely shorter than succeeding pairs, remaining feathers with broad 
subterminal space of purplish black, and tipped with white, lateral feathers 
scarcely acuminate, the outermost barely emarginate on inner web. Length of 
adult male: about 3.50 (88.9) ; wing 1.75 (44.5); tail 1.25 (31.8) ; bill .75 (19.1). 
Female, length about 4.00 (101.6) ; wing 1.95 (49.5). 
Recognition Marks.—Pyegmy size; black gorget of male distinctive; female 
larger than in Stellula calliope, with which alone it is likely to come into com- 
parison. 
Nesting.—Nest: Of plant down secured by cobwebs, saddled upon small 
descending branch at moderate height, or lashed to twigs of small fork. Eggs: 
2 or, rarely, 3, pure white, elliptical oval in shape. Av. size, .50 x .33 (12.7 x 8.3). 
Season: May or June according to altitude; one brood. 
General Range.—Western United States, except the northern Pacific coast 
district, north in the interior into British Columbia, breeding south to northern 
Lower California and east to the Rocky Mountains; south in winter into Mexico. 
Range in Washington.—Not common summer resident east of the Cascades 
only. 
Authorities.—? Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II. 1895, p. 199 
(inferential). Dawson, Auk, Vol. XIV. Apr. 1897, p. 175. Sr. Ss?. J. 
Specimens.—(U. of W.) P". C. 
THOSE of us, who as children were taught to call lady-bugs “lady-birds,” 
might have been pardoned some uncertainty as to the whereabouts of the divid- 
ing line between insects and birds, especially if, to the vision of the “Hum- 
bird’s” wings shimmering by day above the flower bed, was added the twilight 
visits of the hawk-moths not a whit smaller. The Hummer is painted like a 
butterfly ; its flight is direct and buzzing like a bee’s; it seeks its food at the 
flower’s brim by poising on rapidly vibrating wing like the hawk-moth; but 
there the resemblances cease. For the rest it is a bird, migrating, mating, and 
nesting quite like grown folks. 
