NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 235 



436. TrocMlus calliope GOULD. [343.] 



Calliope Hummingbird. 



Hab. Western United States, north to British Columbia, south to Mexico; east to Rocky Mountains. 



One of the smallest of Hummingbirds. Common to the mountains 

 of the Pacific slope, from British Columbia south to the Table Lands of 

 Mexico. It is abundant in some localities on the eastern slopes of the 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains, and occurs as far east as the Rocky Moun- 

 tain region, from New Mexico north to Montana. 



In the vicinity of Fort Klamath Oregon, Dr. Merrill found this spe- 

 cies abundant after May 16 about the blossoms of wild currant and goose- 

 berry bushes. During the breeding season the birds are generally dis- 

 tributed in deep pine woods as well as in more open places, the con- 

 stant, sharp shrill notes of the males indicating their presence. A nest 

 found about the middle of July which the young had just left was 

 placed upon a dead, flattened cone of Pinus contorta. It was composed 

 of thin strips of gray bark, with a few spiders' webs on the outside ; the 

 lining was similar, but with a few small tufts of a cottony blossom from 

 some tree ; the nest was just the color of the cone, and was admirably 

 adapted to escape notice. Another nest containing two nearly fledged 

 young was found at about the same time, but was quite unlike the one 

 just described in construction and situation, being of the common 

 Hummingbird type, and saddled upon a dead willow twig. 



Near Carson, Nevada, Mr. Walter E. Bryant found a nest of this 

 species built upon a projecting splinter of a wood pile at a height of 

 five feet. Another was secured to a rope within an outbuilding. The 

 eggs of this species measure 48x.32. 



439. Amazilia cerviniventris GOULD [346.] 



Buff-bellied Hummingbird* 



Hab. Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas, south to Eastern Mexico. 



Dr. James C. Merrill added this Hummingbird to the avifauna of 

 the United States in 1876, the first specimen being taken August 17, on 

 the Ivower Rio Grande, in Texas. He found it nowhere so abundant 

 as on the military reservation at Fort Brown, where it was perfectly at 

 home among the dense, tangled thickets, darting rapidly among the 

 bushes and creeping vines. A rather noisy bird, its shrill cries usually 

 first attracts one's attention to its presence. A Hummer's nest, un- 

 doubtedly made by this species, was found in September, 1877, within 

 the fort. It was placed on the fork of a dead, drooping twig of a 

 small tree on the edge of a path through a thicket ; it was about seven 

 feet from the ground, and contained the shriveled body of a young 

 bird. The nest was made of downy blossoms of the tree in which it 

 was placed, bound on the outside with cobwebs, and rather sparingly 



