176 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



bow ; tail brownish violet and deeply forked like that of a tree 

 swallow. The female has not the resplendent gorget, and her 

 tail is rounded, with the feathers barred with black and the 

 outer ones tipped with white. The bill of both the male and 

 female are of a brownish color, very long and needle-like in 

 shape. The legs, like those of the chimney swift are very 

 short and the feet very small. 



The range of the ruby-throat extends from as far south as 

 Veragua in Central America, north as far as Davis Inlet, Lab- 

 rador, in latitude 55 degrees 37 minutes, and west in the United 

 States to eastern North and South Dakota, eastern Nebraska 

 and Kansas, the Indian Territory and Texas. Its breeding 

 range is coextensive with its North American geographical dis- 

 tribution. In its northern migration it reaches the southern 

 part of the United States about the first of April, and the mid- 

 dle part about the first part of May. I found them at Buz- 

 zard's Roost May 7, 1904, feeding upon the blossoms of the 

 buckeye. There is five to ten days difference in the time of 

 the coming of the males and females. In 1906 several of them 

 were reported in Indianapolis as late as the tenth of October. 



Mating takes place directly after the birds come north. It 

 is during this period that what is known as the pendulum 

 play of the male takes place. In this play the bird swings to 

 and fro, as if suspended from a fixed point; it describes one- 

 fourth of a circle, and travels about a rod. The movement is 

 continued about a dozen times, the bird emitting chirps all the 

 time, and so far as I have learned this is its only call note or 

 song. Nesting begins about the first of June. The female 

 builds the nest. It is usually saddled upon the horizontal 

 branch of a tree from ten to fifty feet from the ground. Mr. 

 John Burroughs says : "The woods hold not such another gem 

 as the nest of the hummingbird. The finding of one is an event 

 to date from. It is the next best thing to finding an eagle's 

 nest. I have met with but two, both by chance." And by the 

 merest chance I found one of these "gems." It happened this 

 way. I was leisurely walking down street to my office. As I 

 walked I was studying the trees as I passed by them. I had 

 just passed a sassafras, that tree which when young is so sur- 

 passingly beautiful. The next was a maple. On a limb, pro- 



