Birds of Oregon and Washington 63 



flower. So sensitive does our little bird seem, 

 that we could hardly expect it to enter our 

 climate until late June or early July, after the 

 cold rains have passed. We never can quite 

 outgrow, through familiarity, the sense of sur- 

 prise and even of amazement, when this little 

 breath of a bird flits before our eyes in March. 

 And yet that is what he does as often as March 

 comes round. Nor are we prepared to find him, 

 as he has been found, nesting on the mountain 

 side 8,000 feet above the sea. But we know 

 from experience that this is his hardy nature and 

 that he is ready for the honey in the first flowers, 

 and for the first aphides upon the tender foliage. 

 The hum of his wings, moving too rapidly for 

 our sight, will announce, at the same time, his 

 arrival and his readiness to feed our eyes and 

 hearts again with his ever-new evidence of 

 " beauty, wonder and power." 



PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION. Male: Head, metallic 

 green ; same color sometimes down back ; back, lower 

 tail-coverts and breast, rufous ; throat and ruff, or gor- 

 get, coppery-red ; below this, a white collar. 



Female : Back, green instead of rufous ; only a trace 

 of metallic feathers on breast. 



