RivoLi Hummingbird, Eugenes falgens Gould. This is decidedly the most beautifiil 

 species of all the Hummingbirds occurring within the limits of the United States. It is 

 an inhabitant of the table lands of Mexico, south to Nicaragua, but is found also in 

 southern Arizona. About six inches long, "the male has the top of the head rich metallic- 

 violet, the throat brilliant emerald-green, contrasted very abruptly with the deep black 

 of the breast, while the upper parts are dark bronzy-green. These various hues are so 

 arranged or contrasted that only one of them can be seen at once, every change in the 

 bird's position bringing a different color in view." 



Mr. H. W. Henshaw found this species a summer inhabitant of the mountain 

 districts of southern Arizona. "A very beautiful nest," Mr. Henshaw writes, "was dis- 

 covered, which save its large size resembles in its construction the best efforts of the 

 little eastern Ruby Throat. It is composed of mosses nicely woven into' an almost 

 circular cup, the interior possessing a lining of the softest and downiest feathers, while 

 the exterior is elaborately covered with lichens, which are securely bound on by a net- 

 work of the finest silk from spiders' webs. It was saddled on a horizontal limb of an 

 alder, about twenty feet above the bed of a running mountain stream, in a glen which 

 w^as overarched and shadowed by several huge spruces, making it one of the most 

 shady and retired nooks that could be imagined. . . . The dimensions of the nest are as 

 follows: Depth, externally, 1.50; internally, 0.75; greatest external diameter, 2.25; 

 internal diameter, 1.15." 



Blue-throated Hummingbird, Coeligena clemencise Less., a bird of the tablelands 

 of Mexico to Guerrero and Oaxaca, has been detected also in southern Arizona, by 

 Mr. F. Stephens. 



Ruby-throated Hummingbird. 



Trochilus colubtis LiNNfi. 



Plate XXVI. Fig. 1 and 2. 



When morning dawns, and the bless'd sun again 

 Lifts his red glories from the eastern main, 

 Then round our -woodbines, wet with glittering dews, 

 The flower-fed Hummingbird his round pursues ; 

 Sips with inserted tube the honeyed blooms, 

 And chirps his gratitude as round he roams; 

 While richest roses, though in crimson dress'd. 

 Shrink from the splendor of his gorgeous breast. 



The purple amethyst, the emerald's green. 

 Contrasted mingle with the ruby's sheen. 

 While over all a tissue is put on 

 Of golden gauze, by fairy fingers spun. 

 What heavenly tints in mingled radiance fly! 

 Bach rapid movement gives a different dye; 

 Like scales of burnish'd gold they dazzling show, 

 Now sink to shade, now like a furnace glow. 



Alexander Wilson. 



'ONE of all our feathered summer sojourners have excited so much admiration 

 as the Hummingbirds. They are the "fairies and jewels of ornithology," and 

 have animated Europeans who first saw them flitting from flower to flower, with a 

 feeling of bewildering enchantment. "During the first twenty years of my acquaintance 

 with these wonderful works of creation," says Mr. John Gould, the celebrated author 

 of the most magnificent books on birds in existence, "my thoughts were often directed 



