32 MR. GAMBEL ON THE BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA. 



I also observed another swallow, not far from Monterey, in August, with a deeply 

 forked tail, like our barn swallow, but apparently differently marked. 



CERYLE, Boie. 



24. C. ALCYON, (Linn.) Boie. Kingfisher. 



Common along the whole of the western coast. In California it is never observed 

 to frequent the inland streams and creeks, being exclusively found along the rocky 

 shores and islands. 



CALLIPHLOX, Boie. 



25. C. RUFA, (Gmel.) Boie. Rufous Humming-Bird. 



This beautiful little flame bearer is not unfrequent throughout California. 



26. C. ANNA, (Less.) Garab. Anna Humming-Bird. 



Trochilus icterocephalus, Nutt. Man. Orn., vol. 1, 2d ed., p. 712. 



A very abundant and interesting species, numbers passing the winter in California; 

 at such times inhabiting sheltered hill sides and plains ; where, at all seasons, a few 

 bushy plants are in flower, and afford it a scanty subsistence. They appear, how- 

 ever, in greater numbers about the latter part of February and during the month ol 

 March; the country is soon carpeted with flowers, and the Anna humming bird, 

 revelling among their sweets, commences the duty of rearing its young. About the 

 Pueblo, the vineyards and gardens are its favourite resort, forming its delicate downy 

 nest in a small flowering bush, or some concealed spot about the fence. In April 

 or May these may be found in almost every garden. 



In other parts it attaches its nest almost exclusively to a low, horizontal branch of 

 the evergreen oak, (Quercus agrifolia) so common throughout the country; the nest 

 is small, being about an inch in depth and one and a quarter in diameter ; it is not 

 very thick, and is formed in the most delicate manner of pappus and down of various 

 plants, held together and matted into a soft felt with si)ider's webs, which latter I 

 have frequently observed them collecting for the purpose in the spring along hedges 

 and fence rows, and at first supposed they were only searching them for the gnats 

 and small insects which might be entangled ; but in a nest which I now have, the 

 base is formed of a few dried male aments of the oak, which, with the adjoining 

 felt-like matting of pappus, is agglutinated and bound around the twig with a thick 

 layer of spider's web. The eggs, as usual, are two, white and elliptical. The note 

 resembles that of the Rufous humming bird, and is a slender chejp, frequently 

 repeated ; but during the breeding season they are very pugnacious, and the little 

 combatants dart through the trees, like meteors, uttering a loud and repeated twitter- 

 ing scold. It has the same habit also, that has been remarked in the Rufous hum- 

 ming bird, that of ascending in clear weather to a considerable height in the air, and 

 then descending with great rapidity, uttering at the same time a peculiar note. 



