202 LIFE HISTOEIBS OF KORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



71. Calypte costae (Bourcier). 



COSTA'S HUMMINGBIRD. 



Ornismya costce Bourcier, Revue Zoologique, ii, 1839, 294. 



Calypte costce Gould, Monograph of the Trochilidse, Part XI, 1856, and Vol. Ill, 1861, PI. 134. 



(B 106, C 280, R 337, 415, U 430.) 



Geographical range: Western North America; north to southern California, 

 southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah; east to western and through southern Arizona 

 to southwestern New Mexico; south to Lower California and northwestern Mexico to 

 Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico. 



The northern limits of the range of Costa's Hummingbird have recently 

 been considerably extended, and it is now known to be a common summer 

 resident in southeastern California, at least as far north as Owens Valley, Inyo 

 County, in about latitude 36° 20'; it reaches a slightly higher latitude in 

 southern Nevada, while the northernmost point of its range, as far as known, is 

 to be found in the extreme southwestern corner of Utah, on the eastern slopes 

 of the Beaverdam Mountains, where Dr. C. Hart Merriam found it common 

 among the junipers, somewhat north of the thirty-seventh parallel.^ 



On the west coast of California it has as yet only been taken as far north 

 as Ventura County, and it is evidently rare there. In Arizona it seems to be 

 distributed over the vs^estern half of the territory, as well as over most of the 

 southern sections. Its breeding range is coextensive with its geographical dis- 

 tribution in the United States. The majority of Costa's Hummingbirds appear 

 to be only summer residents within the United States. Mr. W. W. Price, a 

 careful and reliable observer, states, however, that it winters in limited numbers 

 in southern California; and the fact that he found a nest of this Hummingbird 

 containing young as early as January 28, 1887, near Riverside, in San 

 Bernardino Couaty, seems to confirm this, and I have no doubt that other 

 species also winter in suitable localities in the Colorado Desert, in the vicinity 

 of the few springs and water holes found there. Dr. Edgar A. Meams, United 

 States Army, found this Hummer quite common at Tinachas, in southwestern 

 Arizona, near the head of the Gulf of California, between February 16 and 21, 

 1894, and collected a number of specimens there. Its general habits do not 

 differ much from those of the other members of this family found within our 

 borders, excepting that it is somewhat more of a desert-loving species, and it 

 seems to show a special preference for the few water holes and springs in the 

 barren mountain ranges in southeastern California east of the Sierra Nevadas. 

 In such localities it appears to be far more common than in the better v,ratered 

 and more fertile portions of the southwestern parts of the State. 



Dr. A. K. Fisher says: "Costa's Hummingbird is the common species of 

 the desert valleys and mountains of southern California and Nevada. * * * 

 In the Argus Range, California, the species was very common at Maturango 



' North American Fauna, No. 7, 1893, pp. 56-58. 



