THE HUMMING BIRDS. 375 



(reddish in life), tipped with dusky. Length, skin, 3.50; wing, 2.05; 

 tail, 1.20 (forked for about 0.12); exposed cuhneu, 0.87. 



Young male, transition plumage (No. 99730, Arizona; B. W. Nelson): 

 Above metallic green (much duller than in the adult), the feathers of 

 the lower back and rump and the upper tail-coverts indistinctly mar- 

 gined at tips with dull pale brownish ; tail as in adult male; under parts 

 as in adult fejnale, but chin, throat, and malar region inclining to light 

 broccoli-brown, the latter interspersed with metallic greenish blue 

 feathers (of the adult livery), the chest also mixed with metallic green 

 feathers. 



Young female (No. 72536, Santa Rita Mountains, Arizona, Aug. 24, 

 1874; H.'W. Heushaw) : Similar to the adult female, but feathers of 

 the back, rump, etc., margined terminally with pale brown, these 

 edgings most distinct posteriorly; under parts tinged with light brown, 

 especially the chin, malar region, and throat. 



Among adult males the principal variation is in the coloration of the 

 under tattoo verts, which may be white, with the anterior or shorter 

 feathers merely shaded with pale brownish gray, or marked with dis- 

 tinct median spaces of deep brownish gray, an intermediate coloration 

 being the rule. The color of the throat varies slightly in the shade of 

 the blue, which sometimes has a more decided greenish cast, and the 

 upper tail-coverts may be of the same color as the back or of a de- 

 cidedly darker and duller hue. 



The specimens examined are from the valley of Mexico, the plains of 

 Colima, the vicinity of Mazatlau, and southern Arizona. 



The Circe Humming Bird is a common species of western and central 

 Mexico and is a more or less common summer resident in suitable por- 

 tions of southern Arizona, where it was first found in the Chiricahua 

 Mountains, in 1874, by Mr. H. W. Henshaw, and where, both in the 

 original and other localities, it has subsequently been found by other 

 collectors. 



It was next met with in the Santa Eita Mountains by Mr. F. Stephens, 

 as recorded by Mr. Brewster in The Auk, vol. vii, 1882, p. 211 ; then in 

 the Santa Gatalina range by Mr. W. E. D. Scott, in 1884. 



Of this curious rather than beautiful Hummiug Bird [says Mr. Henshaw*] three 

 specimens were secured in the Chiricahua Mouutaius, at a point a few miles distant 

 from Camp Crittenden. As the breeding season was entirely passed, I was able to 

 note nothing concerning its habits which served to distinguish it from others of the 

 family, save what appeared to be a constant habit of frequenting the agaves; and 

 all the specimens were shot as they were flying about these peculiar plants, in the 

 neighborhood of which I am confident I saw several others. Great numbers of this 

 species are found in Mexico ; and, as they there inhabit the mountains and table- 

 lands, the species doubtless extends in summer through northern Mexico, and finds 

 in the extreme southern parts of Arizona a suitable climate; while an abundance of 

 the agave, to which plants it resorts in its more tropical home for at least a great 

 portion of its subsistence, serves as a further attraction. No doubt these hummers 

 are quite numerous in the locality I have referred to earlier in the season, as well as 

 in other similar places. 



/oology of Whftfller'M Survey, 1875, p. 381. 



