34 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Anna's Hummingbird. 



This beautiful little hummingbird is 

 quite plentiful in this locality, being 

 seen in most every orchard and flower 

 garden nearly all the year around. 

 The male is of a green color on the 

 back and top of head, and throat (when 

 held to the sun at a certain position) of 

 a glowing red color. The female being 

 of a plain color and without the nice 

 throat and top of head. 



In Nov. and Dec. these humming- 

 birds begin to mate by flying in pairs 

 one after the other at a very fast speed 

 all through orchards and air, and in as 

 ■early as Feb. they begin to nest till as 

 late as July. 



Last season I took one nest in Feb. 

 and another in March, both not being 

 more than 50 feet apart. I suppose 

 they were built by the same pair. 



The nests of this bird can be found 

 in wallow, sycamore, live oak, orange, 

 peach and plum trees; in fact they 

 have no special choice. I. have found 

 one nest placed on a bud of a thistle; 

 the nest was built of a material of the 

 .same color as the bud, thus making it 

 very hard to find. 



These birds may be found to nest in 

 •orchards, on mountains, in swamps, in 

 canons, and along streams. 



The nests are built of the down of 

 trees or other vegetation, and always 

 has such a color as to look the object in 

 which it is built. 



As this is one of the commonest of 



our hummingbirds I take it up first, 



but later on I will let the readers know 



something about others of this locality. 



A. W. Nolte, 



Los Angeles, Cal. 



Birds North of Their Usual Range. 



Returning here in June, from a col- 

 lecting trip along the Mexican Border, 

 I immediately began to look after the 

 birds, hoping to till up a few gaps in 

 my list of skins or eggs. 



While shooting one day on a range of 

 high hills about a mile west of this 

 place, I took a Wood Thursh. This 

 surprised me; as in many years collect- 

 ing I had never seen or heard of one 

 here before, and the books all agree 

 that their northern limit is farther 

 south. 



A few days later I took two others 

 and saw more. They seemed to be 

 common. 



I also found a nest with one egg. but 

 •when I went to it again it had been 

 destroyed. 



Now this place is in the north part of 

 Washington Co., N. Y., on the Vermont 

 line, and about even with the south end 

 of Lake Champlain. 



While on the same hills one day I 

 heard the well-known notes of the Yel- 

 low-breasted Chat, but did not take the 

 bird. A few days later, however, I 

 shot a fine male in the same locality, 

 and have no doubt the pair were breed- 

 ing- 



Subsequently, in a dense thicket, and 

 three miles away, I heard another Chat 

 singing, and saw a female bird very 

 distiuctly. They seem to have the 

 same habits as the Long-tailed Chat 

 of which I have taken a great many. 

 At times I find them singing and have 

 no trouble to shoot them. Again they 

 will get into a thicket of vines and 

 bushes, and I have watched for them 

 two hours, hearing them all the time, 

 but going away without getting a shot. 



Now with a very mild winter and 

 early spring, did the birds go farther 

 north than usual that they should 

 appear where never seen before? 



I have also known of three instan- 

 ces where the Orchard Oriole has 

 nested in this town. 



F. T. Pember, 

 Granville, N. Y. 



Egg Collecting— The Two Classes. 



For convenience in writing this arti- 

 cle, I have divided mj^ subject into two 



