CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 363 



birds and the nest torn down on July 12th. Another nest was on 

 a dead limb of a small hemlock. The nest, like the wood-pewee's 

 is built on the upper side of the limb. (Rev. C. J. Young.) A nest 

 taken at Ottawa was built on a horizontal branch of a tree. It was 

 built of gray lichen hned with soft plant down. Eggs two, pure 

 white, blushed with pink. (G. R. White.) 



Of three hummingbird's nests I have found, one taken near 

 Ottawa on July 7th, 1890, was seen under exceptionally favourable 

 circumstances. My brother and I spent quite a long time watching 

 the tiny builder. The nest had not yet begun to show cupping, 

 and she was very busy; her absences were short and her visits 

 frequent; twenty or thirty seconds was often sufi&cient for her to 

 get a load, and she took only from ten to thirty seconds, usually 

 twenty, to finish working it in. The universal testimony seems to 

 be that, while the female is useful, the male is merely ornamental, 

 and takes no part whatever in the work; that was certainly the 

 fact in this instance. (W. E. Saunders in Ottawa Naturalist, Vol. 

 XVI, p. loi.) I have a hummingbird's nest made of plant down 

 entirely ornamented with lichens. A crown of these lichens one- 

 third of an inch wide covers the brim. The cavity is all white and 

 its diameter is o . 90 of an inch with a depth of o . 50 of an inch. Out- 

 side it measures i . 25 inches in diameter and i . 50 inches in height. 

 I found it near Ottawa on the 29th July, 1906, built on the middle 

 of a horizontal branch of a beech tree at a height of fifteen feet. 

 Small pieces of shells were in the nest. (A. L. Garneau.) 



429. Black-chinned Hummingbird. 



Trochilus alexandri BouRC. & MuLS. 



Confined to the mainland ; on both slopes of the Coast range. 

 {Fannin.) Summer resident at Chilliwack ; not common. {Brooks.) 

 This species was found in some abundance at Agassiz, B.C., in May, 

 1889, and a few at Spence bridge, B.C., on the mountain back from 

 the bridge. Saw several while at the Similkameen river, B.C., in 

 June, 1905. {Spreadborough.) 



