NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 29S 



One of the smallest of Hummingbirds. Common to the mountains of the Pacific 

 slope, from British Columbia south to the tablelands 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 Mountain region, from New Mexico north to Montana. In the 

 vicinity of Fort Klamath, Oregon, Dr. Merrill found this species abundant after 

 May 16 about the blosoms of wild currant and gooseberry bushes. During the breed- 

 Ing season the birds are generally distributed in deep pine woods as well as in more 

 open places, the constant, 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 Plnus 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 measures .48x.32. 



437. LUCIFER HUMMINGBIRD. Calotliorax lucifer (Swains.) Geog. Dist. 

 Tablelands of Mexico, from Puebla and the Valley of Mexico north to Southern 

 Arizona. 



Mr. H. W. Henshaw added this species of Hummingbird to our fauna in 1874 

 when he took a specimen near Camp Bowie, Arizona. The late Major Bendire stated 

 that so far as he was aware no other specimens have been taken within our borders 

 since that time. 



438. RIEFFER'S HUMMINGBIRD. Amazilia fuscicaudata (Fraser.) Geog. 

 Dist. Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas, south through Eastern Mexico to Central 

 America and Northern South America. 



This common Central American species was given a place in our fauna by a 

 single specimen secured alive by Dr. James C. Merrill in June, 1876. It has not been 

 obtained in the lower Rio Grande Valley since and must be considered a straggler 

 with these limits. It is extremely abundant in the lowlands of Eastern Nicarauga. 

 Specimens of the nest of this species resemble some of those of the Black-chinned 

 Hummingbird, and its eggs are similar. 



439. BUFF-BELLIED HUMMINGBIRD. Amazilia eervinivcntris Gould. Geog. 

 Dist. 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 Lower 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 attract one's attention to its presence. A Hummer's nest, undoubtedly 

 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 cf 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 covered with 

 lichens. The inside depth was somewhat less than 1.00; the diameter .50; external 

 depth 1.50. Mr. C. W. Crandall's collection contains a beautiful nest and two 



