THE CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIED. 221 



for them, I bad no further difificuhy in finding their nests, and all of those 

 observed by me were built in exactly similar situations. I succeeded in obtain- 

 ing three sets of nearly fresh eggs, and found a number of other nests containing 

 young during the next few days. They were usually placed on or against a 

 dry cone on s?nall dead limbs of Finns contorta, from 8 to 15 feet from the 

 ground, and on account of the brittle nature of these limbs tliey were rather 

 hard to secure. The nests, while outwardly not as handsome as those of the 

 majority of our Hummers, are nevertheless marvels of ingenuity, all those I have 

 seen mimicking a small dead pine cone so perfectly as to almost defy detection 

 unless one sees the bird fly on or off the nest. The majority found A^ere sad- 

 dled on one or two such cones, or on a small limb and resting against the sides 

 of a cone. The outer Avails are composed of bits of bark a.nd small slu-eds of 

 cone, and the interior cup is softly lined Avith Avillow down. An average nest 

 measures about 1| inches in outer diameter by the same in depth; the inner cup 

 being three-quarters of an inch in width b}^ one-half inch in depth. The nests 

 were generally so placed that the contents Avere protected b}' larger limbs or 

 green boughs aboA'e, and at distances varying from 5 to 12 feet from the 

 ground. One I found had a flattened cone projecting directly over it, resembling- 

 an opened umbrella. While bushy pines seem to constitute their favorite nest- 

 ing sites in northern California and Oregon at least, they do not iuA^ariably con- 

 fine themselves to such trees. Mr. Shelly W. Denton took a nest of the Calliope 

 Hummer at Franktown, Washoe County, Nevada, which is now in Mr. William 

 Brewster's collection at Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mr. Denton Avatched the bird 

 Avhile building it. This is composed interiorly of fine moss and willoAvdoAvn, and 

 the outer walls are decorated with tiny shreds of bark, fine flakes of Avood, and 

 flakes of Avhitewash, fastened securely with cobwebs ; it was placed on a knot in 

 a rope hanging- from the roof of a woodshed and within 5 feet of an occupied 

 dwelling house. The materials out of which the nest is composed closely assim- 

 ilate the rope and knot on Avhich it is placed. This nest contained two eggs on 

 June 8, 1887, these being deposited on alternate days. The male Avas never 

 seen about the nest. The rope (one-third of an inch thick) hung down about 4 

 feet, so that every time th6 female settled on the rim of the nest while building 

 she caused it to swing back and forth like a pendulum. This specimen, which I 

 have seen, does not resemble the nests taken by me very closely, and the Cal- 

 liope Hummer evidently attempts to mimic the immediate surroundings as nearly 

 as practicable. Mr. Walter E. Bryant records another, built upon a projecting- 

 splinter of a woodpile, at a height of 5 feet.^ 



The only eggs of this species in the United States National Museum col- 

 lection are those taken by the late Capt. John Feilner, United States Army, near 

 Pitt River, California, in June, 1859, and tlu-ee sets collected by myself near Fort 

 Klamath, Oregon. They resemble the eggs of our better known Hummingbirds 

 in shape and color, but are smaller. 



'Bulletin of tlie California Academy of Sciences, 1887, p. 452. 



