The Humming Birds of the Pacific Coast, elc. 109 
life history of the Libellulidz.of which so little is known, will be 
duly considered. 
All the essays received may be published wholly or in part at 
the discretion of the judges, and full credit willin all cases be 
given to each observer. 
The essays should be forwarded by December 1, 188g, to Mr. 
J. H. Winser, at the American Museum of Natural History 77th 
street and 8th Avenue, New York to whom all communications 
should be addressed. 
Robert FT. Lamborn. 
THE HUMMING BIRDS OF THE PACIFIC COAST 
NORTH OF CAPERS, LUCAS. 
Your correspondent asks, among other questions, how many 
species of humming birds there are in California. Six species 
occur in and west of the Sierra Nevada mountains and their south- 
ern extensions besides which, one if not two stragglers have been 
captured in this district, and three or four Mexican species are 
likely to be found, occasionally at least, in the Colorado Desert, 
as they have already been taken in Southern Arizona. The 
single eastern species, T. colubris, has not been taken on the 
Pacifie Coast. A single example of T. floressii (Loddiges) was 
taken near Oakland by Mr. W. E. Bryant. 
The known distribution of the six species is as follows: 
1. TROCHILLUS ALEXANDRI. Black-chinned humming bird. 
Pacific Coast region from California east to Utah and Arizona, 
and southward. 
2. TROCHILLUS cosTa:. Costcee humming bird. Southern 
Calitornia, Arizona and Western Mexico. 
3. T. ANNaz. Anna’s humming bird. California, Southern 
Arizona and Mexico. 
4. T. RUFUS. Rufous humming bird. Rocky Mountains to 
the Pacific, north to Sitka, south to Mexico. 
5: T. ALLENI. Allens humming bird. Pacific Coast north to 
British Columbia, east to Southern Arizona. 
6. T. CALLIOPE. Calliope humming bird. Mountains of tiie 
Pacific Slope from British Columbia, south to Lower California, 
and east to Montana, Nevada and New Mexico. 
With the exception of T. anne, all the above leave California 
in the fall or early winter and gosouthward. T. costce, however, 
is the only one of them that I found as far south as La Pazin 
winter, at which time it is abundantin the cape region. Xantus’ 
humming bird, a beautiful species so far collected only in the 
peninsula between La Paz and Cape St. Lucas, may yet be dis- 
covered in summer in the mountains of San Diego county. 
It is a mountain loving species, usually found near fresh water. 
