THE HUMMING BIRDS. 323 



eties of this plant and all are favorite feediug resorts of the Rivoli Hummer. I have 

 shot as many as a dozen in a day simply by sitting down and watching for them to 

 come and feed. It is necessary to seleet a well-matured plant, and at the proper 

 elevation, as well as in good surroundings of spruce pines. While feeding these birds 

 range from 4,500 to 8,000 feet altitude or up to the pine belt, their favorite grounds 

 being where the pines end on the downward slope. Their flight is exceedingly rapid 

 at times, but they often fly slowly so that the wings can be easily seen during the 

 beats. The noise made by this bird's wings during a rapid flight is not like the buz- 

 zing of the small Hummers' wings, the beats being more slow and distinct, without 

 any buzzing noise. 



Their note is a twittering sound, louder, not so shrill, and uttered more slowly than 

 those of the small Hummers. 



From July 5 to 9 I examined nine females ; one had already laid and the other con- 

 tained eggs that wonld probably have been laid within from 1 to 4 days. On 

 July 10 my search for the nest was at last rewarded. The country I had explored 

 was from 7,500 to 10,000 feet elevation, where a dense growth of tall spruce pines 

 covers the hillsides. These pines are all more or less covered with bunches of moss 

 and lichens. I was resting on a rock in the cool shade beneath one of these trees 

 when I was suddenly attracted by the noise of a Hummer's wiugs close to my head. 

 Looking up I saw a female Rivoli making perpendicular dives at me. After repeating 

 this until I had moved off a sufficient distance, she alighted upon a small dead twig and 

 there sat watching me for some moments. As all remaiued quiet she now flew about 

 the tree slowly, and when about 50 feet up made a rapid dart to the crotch of a mossy 

 limb about 10 feet from the trunk, where the nest was built, nearly hidden from the 

 ground. I now came up, and by throwing things at her flushed her off the nest, but 

 she at once returned to it. After mnch trouble the nest and the two eggs it con- 

 tained were secured in safety. 



The nest was firmly attached to the limb just beyond a crotch, the limb at the nest 

 being about an inch in diameter. It is of a uniform oval shape, its diameter outside 

 being from 2.03 to 2.62 inches; inside from 1.20 to 1.45. The depth outside is 1.55 

 inches; inside it is 0.62. It is composed outwardly of bits of fine moss and lichens, 

 and is indistinguishable from the limbs about it. It is well lined on the inside with 

 many star-shaped downy seeds of a delicate cream color, similar to those of the com- 

 mon thistle of the East, but smaller and softer. The two eggs are pure white, shaped 

 alike at both ends, and measure 0.53 by 0.37 and 0.52 by 0.37 inch. 



Genus CCBLIGENA Lesson. 



Cceligena Less., Ind. and Synop. Gen. Troch. 1832, p. xviii. Type, Ornismya clcmenciw 



Less. 

 Delattria Bonap., Consp. i, 1850, 70. Type, Ornismya henrica Less, and Delattkk. 

 Chariessa Heine, Jour, fur Orn., May, 1863, 178. Type, Ornismya henrica Less, and 



Delattke. 

 Himelia Muls., Cat, Ois Mouch, 1875, 7. Type, Ornismya henrica Less, and Delattke, 



(fide Elliot). 



Generic characters. — Tail more than two-thirds as long as wing, 

 slightly rounded or double-rounded, the feathers very broad ; bill nearly 

 straight, less than one-third as long as the wing, and less than half 

 as long as the longest tail-feathers. Size, large (total length 4.25 or 

 more ; wing, 2.60 or more). Colors, above rather dull metallic green- 

 ish, changing to purplish-black on upper tail-coverts and tail (except 

 in G. hemileuca) ; ear-coverts dusky, or else brilliant green, always bor- 

 dered above by a distinct white stripe ; adult males with the throat 

 metallic blue, pale violet or amethyst, reddish purple, or pale emerald- 

 green. 



