THE HUMMING BIRDS. 329 



parts as in the male, and lower parts are more decidedly white in some 

 specimens than in others; in others again, but chiefly (?) in autumnal 

 birds, the flanks are more or less strongly tinged with rusty. Very 

 rarely (?) is there any dusky streaking on the chin and upper throat, aud 

 never (?) is this so decided as is often seen in females of T. alexandri. 



Little need be said as to the habits of this well-known Humming 

 Bird. Its distribution is general over every portion of the continent 

 from the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast and from Canada to the 

 Gulf of Mexico. Arriving among us when spring is fairly established 

 and departing just before the first autumnal frosts, these creatures 

 traverse a distance in their migrations that appears almost impossible 

 to creatures so minute, many individuals making their winter homes 

 as far south as Veragua, in the State of New Granada, immediately 

 north of the Isthmus of Panama. A considerable number pass the 

 winter as far north as southern Florida, and a few have been seen dur- 

 ing the same season in southern Texas. 



The nest is a beautiful cup-shaped structure ornamented externally 

 with a mosaic of bits of lichen and warmly lined with plant-down. 

 The eggs average about 0.50 by 0.30 of an inch. 



Violet-throated Humming Bird. Trochilus violajugulum Jeffries. 

 (Plate xxxviii, Fig. 2.) 

 Trochilus violajugulum Jeffr., Auk, v, No. 2, April, 1888,168; ib., July, 1889, 223. 



Bange. — Southern California (vicinity of Santa Barbara). 



Sp. Char. — Most like T. alexandri, but larger, with gorget much 

 more extensively metallic and much more reddish purple in color; tail 

 much longer and more deeply forked, with outer feather relatively nar- 

 rower and more pointed. 



Adult male (No. 1616, coll. Dr. J. Amory Jeffries, Santa Barbara, 

 California, May 4, 1883): Pileum dull dusky green — almost black 

 when viewed from in front, more metallic from behind; rest of up- 

 per parts, except remiges and rectrices (but including middle pair of 

 the latter), bronzy green ; remiges and primary coverts dull purplish 

 dusky; tail (except middle pair of feathers) dull black, the feathers 

 tinged at tips with metallic green. A small white spot behind eye. 

 Chin and a rather indistinct stripe thence backwarks beneath eye and 

 along upper margin of gorget opaque dull black ; gorget metallic, au- 

 ricula purple* (much less violaceous than in T. alexandri), the posterior 



* See the author's Nomenclature of Colors (Little, Brown & Co., Boston), pi. vin, 

 fig. 3. 



In describing the color of the gorget in Humming Birds some allowance should be 

 made for individual variation. Taking a considerable number of specimens of four 

 of the North American species (Trochilus alexandri, Calypte costos, Atthis heloisa, and 

 Calothorax lucifer), the color of the gorget varies so much that it is possible to find 

 specimens of tbe four species which are so nearly alike in this respect that what lit- 

 tle difference may exist can scarcely be described. Tbe average difference, however, 

 is very decided, and there is more difference in the degree of brilliancy of the surface 



