Vol. XVII 2 7 Ch ay Ba 
ae Kosst, The Rufous Hummingbird. 13 
firmly held together by a network of spider webs, and was plenti- 
‘fully lined with plant down obtained from the siskins of the pussy 
willow. It showed the following measurements: Diameter out- 
side, 1.65 inches; diameter inside, .go of an inch; depth outside, 
rt inch; depth inside, .64 inches. ‘These birds seem to make the 
outside of their nests correspond as nearly as possible with the 
color of the surroundings. The foregoing nest was the exact 
color of the green bough upon which it was built. I also found a 
nest which was covered on the outside with fine rootlets and 
weed stems, the color of which corresponded exactly with the 
color of the dead vine in which it was placed. This nest illus- 
trates very well the fearlessness of this Hummer, since it was 
placed directly over our front porch in the branches of a dead 
honeysuckle vine. The following note was probably written by 
me sometime in April and it speaks as follows concerning the 
nesting site:— All of the Rufous Hummingbirds’ nests which I 
have thus far found (about twenty in number) were situated upon 
the boughs of spruce trees, with the exception of two. I have 
already spoken of one of these as being built in a dead vine. 
The other was situated in a thimbleberry bush and was only 
thirty inches, by actual measurement, from the ground. Nearly 
all of them are composed of lichens and spider webs lined with 
the down of pussy willow siskins. I think they use the spider 
webs mainly to make the nest stable, since they are only found 
on the outside as a sort of network. All the nests found were 
less than thirty feet from the ground and generally over six. 
The majority, however, fall between these figures, being over six 
and less than fifteen. They were always well hidden by the 
foliage of the thick evergreens in which they are placed, and if it 
were not for the female darting off her nest, very few would be 
found. In fact I know of only two or three nests located in 
other ways. These were found either by accident or by seeing 
the male Hummer drive off other birds. . 
Like all Hummingbirds this species lays but two pure white 
eggs, the average measurements of which are .50 of an inch long 
and .32 of an inch wide. 
The following paragraphs are taken from the descriptions of 
two sets of eggs of this species taken at this place. The first 
