402 ‘THE CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD. 
this nearly silent but always beautiful species after the muse of eloquence, 
Calliope? 
While it is true that the species may be found in abundance thruout 
the higher Cascades, and especially along their eastern slopes, it is hardly 
just to say with Bendire, that “the Calliope Hummingbird is a mountain- 
loving species and during the breeding 
season is rarely met with below alti- 
tudes of 4,000 feet, and much more 
frequently between 6,500 to 8,000 
feet.”"* We have found it commonly 
in the northern and eastern portions 
of Washington at much lower alti- 
tudes, and have taken its nest in the 
burning gorge of the Columbia at 
an altitude of only six hundred feet. 
In the mountains the bird knows no 
restriction of range, save that it 
avoids the heavily timbered slopes of 
the West-side; and it is at least as 
common along the divide as is the 
Rufous Hummer. 
Without doubt the mind remembers 
longest those birds which visit the 
mountain heather beds, gorgeous with 
Taken in Spokane. Photo by F. S. Merrill. flowers, and varied beyond descrip- 
CALLIOPE HUMMER, FEMALE. tion. A bit of heather on Wright’s 
Peak at an elevation of 8,000 feet, 
yielded thirty-two species of plants in conspicuous bloom within a stone’s 
throw of camp. The Hummers appear to be attracted to the flower beds by 
color and position rather than by scent, and as sure as we neglected to rise 
with the sun, a troop of puzzled honey-hunters hovered by turns over our 
parti-colored blankets. Once a Hummer minutely inspected a red bandana 
handkerchief which graced the bird-man’s neck; and once, I regret to say it, 
fluttered for some moments before his nose (sunburned!). 
The tower and dive of the Calliope Hummer produces at its climax a 
squeak of the tiniest and shrillest quality. It is a sight well worth seeing 
when one of these elfin gallants, flashing like a jewel and bursting with self- 
consciousness, mounts slowly upward on vibrating wings to a height of a 
hundred feet, then darts back with the speed of lightning to make an affec- 
tionate pass at the placid lady on the twig below. The same tactics are 
a. Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II., p. 219. 
