( 238 ) 



ANNA HUMMING BIRD. 



Trochjlus Anna. 



PLATE CCCCXXV. Male and Female. 



My good friend Thomas Nuttall, while travelling from the Rocky 

 Mountains toward California, happened to observe on a low oak bush 

 a Humming Bird's nest on which the female was sitting. Having 

 cautiously approached, he secured the bird with his hat. The male in 

 the mean time fluttered angrily around, but as my friend had not a gun, 

 he was unable to procure it. 



The nest, which he has presented to me, is attached to a small 

 branch, and several leaves from a twig issuing from it, which have ap- 

 parently been bent down for the purpose. It is very small, even for 

 the size of the bird, being an inch and a half in depth, and an inch and 

 a quarter in breadth externally at the mouth, while its internal diar 

 meter is ten-twelfths, and its depth eight and a half twelfths. It is of 

 a conical form, and composed of the cottony down apparently of some 

 species of willow, intermixed with scales of catkins and a few feathers, 

 and lined with the same substances. The eggs, two in number, are 

 pure white, of a nearly elliptical form, five-twelfths of an inch long, 

 and three and a quarter twelfths in their greatest breadth. 



The figures of the nest and female are taken from the specimens 

 presented to me by Mr Nuttall. Those of the male I made from 

 specimens, for the use of which I am indebted to Mr Loddiges, of 

 London, whose collection of Humming Birds is unrivalled. This spe- 

 cies is the fourth now found within the limits of the United States. 



OisEAU-MotrcHE Anna, Oenismya Anna, Lesson, pi. 74. — Traitd d'Omithologie, 

 p. 281. 



Adult Male. Plate CCCCXXV. Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4. 



Bill long, very slender, cylindrical, slightly depressed at the base, 

 acuminate ; upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, the ridge 

 narrow at the base and convex toward the end, the sides convex, the 

 edges overlapping ; lower mandible with the angle very long and ex- 



