THE BEO AD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD. 213 



nests belong, in this instance at least it would be impossible to form a correct 

 idea from the nest and eggs alone, without obtaining the parent. The inner 

 lining appears to be composed entirely of willow or cottonwood down, and none 

 of the specimens before me contain even a single feather. The outer covering 

 or tliatching is firmly secured to the walls of the nest with spider webs or silk 

 from cocoons. The majority of the nests of the Broad-tailed Hummingbird are 

 placed on low, horizontal branches of willows, alders, cottonwoods, etc., at no 

 great height from the ground, or overhanging small mountain streams, while 

 others are saddled on boughs or limbs of pine, fir, spruce, or aspens, from 4 to 15 

 feet from the ground, rarely higher. Occasionally a nest may be placed on a 

 curled-up piece of bark or on a splinter of a broken limb. The length of incu- 

 bation is probably the same as that of our other species about which somewhat 

 more is known, and two if not three broods are regularly raised in a season. 

 The eggs, two in number, resemble those of the Ruby-throat in ever}^ respect, 

 but are a trifle shorter. 



The average measurement of fifteen specimens in the United States National 

 Museum collection is 12.70 by 8.33 millimetres, or about 0.50 by 0.33 inch. 

 The largest egg measures 13.21 by 8.38 millimetres, or 0.52 by 0.33 inch; the 

 smallest, 12.19 by 8.13 millimetres, or 0.48 by 0.32 inch. 



The type specimen. No. 26793 (not figured), from a set of two eggs, Ralph 

 collection, was taken in Estes Park, Colorado, on June 10, 1892. The nest was 

 placed in the forks of a willow twig, 4 feet from the ground, near the banks of 

 a little mountain brook. 



75. Selasphorus rufus (Gmelin). 



EUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD. 



TrocMhis rnfus Gmelin, Systema jSfatnrse., I, i, 1788, 497. 

 Selasphorus rufus Gould, Mouograpli of the Trocbilidiie, III, 1852, PI. 137. 

 (B 103, C 277, E 340, 411, U 433.) 



Geographical eange: Western Nortli America; nortli through British Columbia 

 to about latitude 61° in southern Alaska; east, in the United States, to the eastern slopes 

 of the Eocky Mountains from Montana through Colorado to New Mexico, as well as in the 

 intervening regions; south through California, Arizona, southern New Mexico, western 

 Texas, and the table-lands of Mexico; in winter to Vera Cruz and Oaxaca, Mexico, and 

 Lower California. 



The Rufous Hummingbird, also occasionally called "Rufous-backed," "Cin- 

 namon," and "Nootka" Hummingbii'd, appears to be the most widely distributed 

 species of the TrochUidm found on the North American continent, extending at 

 least over 40° of latitude. It reaches somewhat farther north than the Ruby- 

 throated Hummingbird, and appears to be a tolerably common summer resi- 

 dent in southern Alaska, where Di-. T. H. Bean found it nesting in the vicinity 

 of Sitka on June 9. It has also been observed somewhat farther north on the 

 Alaskan coast, in tlie vicinity of Mount St. Elias, in about latitude 61°; but 



