350 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



Sparrow Hawks have no chance at all with them. He has often seen 

 the little fellows in hot chase after these latter birds, and their only 

 care seemed to be to get out of the way as soon as possible of foes so 

 determined. 



The Rufous-backed Hummer, on the contrary, frequents the thickets 

 and is always unsuspicious and easily approached. The different local- 

 ities they affect may indicate a difference in the flowers from which 

 they obtain their food.* 



The nesting habits of Allen's Humming Bird are thus interestingly 

 described by Mr. W. Otto Emerson, of Hay ward's, California :t 



I will here speak of Allen's Humming Bird (Selasphorus alleni), that commenced to 

 build its nest on a runuiug rose, under the porch roof, and within 8 feet of the floor, 

 in front of our bedroom window, on May 27, 1885. She commenced the nest on the 

 end of the stalk, by bringing a lot of willow cotton and webs. She would place her- 

 self on the spot chosen, then with her bill, running it here and there around the edge 

 of the bottom, picking out a bit here and there, to place some other in its place, then 

 working her wings in a fluttering manner to shape the nest around her body. On 

 May 31 she laid her first egg, although the nest was not all done yet. She laid some 

 time before 10 o'clock, as I kept watch of her, and she had been sitting all day on 

 account of the high winds blowing the running rose stalks. By sitting close she 

 kept the egg from rolling out. Once or twice she left the nest to get a bit of web or 

 cotton to put around the nest. On June 1 she did not lay an egg, as the wind was 

 blowing hard all day. So she had to keep on her nest to save her egg. The nest 

 swung like "the cradle in the tree top" of nursery rhyme fame. The nest looked 

 about half done, a great deal of cotton from the willows and the stamens of the 

 Australian blue-gum tree flowers. June 3 one of the eggs got shaken out of the nest 

 and got broken on the floor. Still she sat. On June 4 the wind was very violent 

 and switched out the other egg. The bird would come to the nest, look in, and then 

 dart away, hovering in thn air, give two or three sharp rasping notes, and then fly 

 off to hunt her mate to tell him of their fate. The nest still hangs there to the win- 

 ter winds. 



For an entertaining account of the habits of Allen's Humming Bird 

 in captivity, the reader is referred to an article by Mrs. 0. M. Crowell, 

 in the Ornithologist and Oologist, vol. vn, 1882, pp. 126-128. 



BROAD-TAILED HUMMING BIRD. Selasphorm platycercus (SWAINS.). 



Trochilus platycercus SWAINS., Philos. Mag., i, 1827, 441. 



Selasphorm platycerus BONAP., Rev. et Mag. Zool.. 1854, 257. GOULD, Mon. 

 Troch. pt. in, 1852, pi. 7; vol. in, 1861, pi. 140. COOP., Orii. Cal. I, 1870, 

 357. B. B. and R., Hist. N. Am. B., n, 1874, 462, pi. 47, fig. 5. 

 Broad-tailed Flame-bearer (GOULD). 

 LeSe'lasphore a large queue (MULSANT and VERREAUX). 

 Chupamirto de pecho color de carraiu (D'OCA). 



RANGE. Rocky Mountain district of United States, north to Wyo- 

 ming and Utah, west to East Humboldt Mountains, Nevada (to eastern 

 slope of Sierra Nevada?); breeding as far south as mountains of Ari- 

 zona and New Mexico ; in winter south over table-land of Mexico to 

 highlands of Guatemala. 



* Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, vol. n, 1877, pp. 55, 56. 

 t Ornithologist and Oologist, vol. xi, No. 3, p. 37. 



