o / 



Field and Forest 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 



Vol. III.— DECEMBER, 1877.— No. 6. 



Notes on the Habits of the Green-backed California 

 Humming Bird. Selasphorus Alleni, (Henshaw.) 



A letter from my correspondent, Mr. C. A. Allen, of Nicasio, Cal., 

 contains some interesting notes on the habits of the above recently 

 described species, and with his permission I publish them as an ac- 

 ceptable contribution to our knowledge of this bird. 



The time of its arrival about San Francisco varies with the char- 

 acter of the season. When this is favorable it may be expected about 

 the 10th of February, but, on the contrary, should the weather be cold 

 and rainy, our little stranger, fresh from sub-tropical sweets, will hardly 

 risk an appearance e're the 25th of this month. The experience of 

 former years has taught him where he will find food in abundance, his 

 chief necessity after his fatiguing flight northward, and without hesita- 

 tion or loitering he flies straight to the mountains, and feasts himself 

 upon the nectared blossoms of the Manzanita bushes, now in full 

 bloom. There he may be seen, with numbers of his kind, glancing 

 amongst the shrubbery, and forming with his fellows a jolly brother- 

 hood of bachelors, till in a week or so the arrival of the more soberly 

 dressed females, with their shy ways, sets his mind working in other 

 channels. 



During the mating season now at hand his temper, none of the best 

 at any time, becomes irascible in the extreme, and woe betide the in- 

 truder in the shape of rival humming bird who trenches on his vested 

 rights. With courage the most dauntless he will attack any foe, be it 

 small or large, and where his tiny strength fails his colossal impudence 



