THE BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD. 229 



In speaking of their habits he says: "They were always found near water, and 

 usually along the streams which flowed through canyons, high among the 

 mountains. They seemed to prefer sycamores to other trees, and invariably 

 perched on dead twigs where they could command an open view. Their notes 

 were flat, and differed from those of other Hummers." : 



Mr. W. E. D. Scott subsequently extended its range northward to the Santa 

 Catalina Mountains. In his notes on the birds of Arizona he makes the following 

 remarks about this species: 



"During the spring, summer, and early fall of 1884 this was a rather com- 

 mon species in the Catalina Mountains, from an altitude of 3,500 to 5,000 feet, 

 but in the corresponding season of 1885 the birds were apparently rare. The 

 birds arrive at this point early in April, the 5th of that month being my earliest 

 record, when I took two adult males. They remain throughout the spring and 

 summer, leaving from the middle to the last of September. I took an adult 

 female on June 26, 1884, that contained an unlaid egg, with shell nearly formed, 

 so that there can be little doubt that the birds breed at this point. Besides, I 

 have the young birds in first plumage from July 1 until late in August." 



There are also a number of specimens of this species in the United States 

 National Museum collection, taken by Mr. E. W. Nelson in the Santa Rita 

 Mountains and near Tucson, Arizona; and Dr. Edgar A. Mearns took a specimen 

 in a canyon of the Guadalupe Mountains, in southwestern New Mexico, close 

 to the international boundary line, on August 31, 1893, and another on the 

 Santa Cruz River, west of the Patagonia Mountains, near the Sonora line, on 

 July 4, 1893, both of which are now in the collection here. 



Dr. A. K. Fisher failed to find this species in the Chiricahua Mountains, 

 Arizona, in the spring of 1894, but it undoubtedly occurs there also. There is 

 a nest of this species, No. 17890, in the United States National Museum collec- 

 tion, taken by Prof. A. Duges at Guanajuato, Mexico, and received from him in 

 July, 1879, which measures 1J inches in outer diameter by If inches in height. 

 The inner cup measures 1 inch in width by three-fourths of an inch in depth. 

 For a Hummer's nest it is composed of rather coarse materials throughout. 

 These consist of fine shreds of bark and plant fibers, mixed with a little finer 

 vegetable down; the outside is decorated with narrow strips of bark, fine plant 

 stems, bits of lichens, and a piece of white cotton thread, these materials being 

 covered with a coating of spider webs, which hold them securely in place. 

 The inner lining consists of finer materials of a similar nature, and the entire 

 nest is rather loosely put together. This nest was saddled on a fork of a slender 

 and drooping' twig. 



Messrs. Salvin and Godman mention another specimen, stating: "Senor A. 

 Herrera describes a nest of this species which he found at Chimalcovoc, in the 

 Valley of Mexico, as composed of the seeds of Asclepias linaria, and placed in 

 a plant of an Opimtia in such a manner that a section of the plant shaded it from 

 sun and rain." 2 



1 Bulletin Nuttall Ornithological Club, Vol. VII, 1882, p. 211. 



2 Biologia Centrali Americana, Aves, Vol. II, May, 1892, pp. 257, 258. 



