Rufous Humming-bird 255 
Successively increasing elevations by the same parents, 
but direct proof of this seems very difficult to 
obtain. 
A rather remarkable nesting-place for this species was 
noticed and photographed by Warren (Plate 8). The 
nest was fixed on a spiral-shaped electric-light fixture, 
on a porch in front of a house in Colorado Springs. 
Although the house was occupied and the porch was 
constantly being used, two young ones were successfully 
reared and flew away. 
Rufous Humming-bird. Selasphorus rufus. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 433—Colorado Records—Henshaw 75, p. 375; 
Drew 81, p. 140; 85, p. 17; Morrison 88, p. 107; 89, p. 146; Ridgway 
90, p. 343; Cooke 97, pp. 86, 162, 208; Henderson 03, p. 235; 09, 
p. 232 ; Rockwell 08, p. 165. 
Description.—Male—Above rufous-brown with « patch of metallic 
green on the crown and also sometimes on the back; wings purplish- 
dusky, the outer primary narrowed, falcate and bent inwards; below, 
tail like the back, but with a little dusky purplish at the edge and tip, 
the central pair of feathers broad and rather narrowed and pointed at 
the tip, the next pair nicked near the tip of the inner web, the outer 
one considerably narrowed ; below, the gorget coppery-red, somewhat 
prolonged at the corners into a ruff; breast white, posteriorly rufous- 
brown, rather paler than above. Length 3-4; wing 1-6; tail .9; 
culmen -65. 
The female above is chiefly metallic green overlying the rufous ; 
the male characters of the wings and tail hardly show; the middle 
tail-feathers are rufous, darkening at the tip; the others cinnamon, 
then purplish, then white ; the gorget is absent, but the throat is white, 
usually spotted with metallic—scarlet or greenish in some lights; the 
rest of the under-parts washed with rufous. 
Distribution. Western North America from southern Alaska south 
to the mountains of southern California, east to Wyoming, Colorado 
and western Texas ; in winter south to Oaxaca in Mexico. 
The Rufous Humming-bird is not common in Colorado except perhaps 
in the extreme south-west, where in La Plata and San Juan cos. it is 
said to breed from 6,500 to 10,500 feet by Drew and Morrison. It 
was first taken in the State by Aiken at Fort Garland, August 12th, 
1874. It is rare along the eastern foothills; Aiken met with it at 
Ramah in July, 1897, and noticed one in a garden in Colorado Springs, 
