THE HUMMING BIRDS. 339 



Bernardino foot-hills, and breeds also on the Colorado Desert, where 

 its nest was found by Mr. F. Stephens as early as March IS. It winters 

 abundantly in the Cape district of Lower California, but none are 

 said to winter so far north as San Diego. It breeds in the Cape dis- 

 trict, but is much less coinmou there in summer than in winter. In 

 southern Arizona it occurs abundantly during its migrations, and also 

 breeds in those localities, which seem specially adapted to it. 

 Says Mr. W. E. D. Scott* : 



In 1884 I did not meet with the birds in the Catalinas till late in July, aud then 

 only sparingly. Bat in 1885, in the same locality, the birds were very common by 

 April 5, particularly the males, in the most gorgeous plumage. The absence of 

 adult females for the next six weeks was very noticeable. I think I took only three, 

 though the males were common all the time. About the 20th of May young birds 

 of the year began to be abundant, and adult birds of either sex were diffiult to rind- 

 The young birds were common all through June; I could often count twenty near 

 my house ; but after June 1 I was unable to get any adult birds of either sex. I do 

 not think the birds bred in the Catalinas, but think that probably they did breed in 

 numbers on the San Pedro River. 



Two nests of this species, collected at La Paz, by Mr. Belding, are 

 quite different in size and shape. Both are ordinary looking structures, 

 composed of dull gray lichens aud small pieces of thin bark, held to. 

 gether with spiders' webs, the interior containing a few soft small 

 feathers, in one nest apparently of the summer yellow bird (Dendroica 

 cestiva). The larger nest measures about 1£ inches in diameter by a 

 little more than 1 inch in depth, the cavity being about 0.1 by 0.80; 

 the smaller one measures about the same in diameter across the top, 

 but is much narrower at the bottom, is less than 1 inch high, and has 

 a shallower cavity with much thinner walls. Each contains a single 

 egg, one measuring 0.30 by 0.50, the other 0.32 by 0.50. The identifica- 

 tion is positive, the parent bird accompanying each nest. One of these 

 females has a very large spot or patch of metallic violet on the throat, 

 while the other has instead only a few dusky specks. 



Genus SBLASPHORUS Swainson. 



Selasphorus Swains., Fauna Bor.-Am. II. 1831, 324, and 496. Type, Trochilus rufus 

 Gmel. 



Generic Characters.— Adult males with the tail-feathers partly 

 rufous, the outer primary narrow and pointed (except in three of 

 the Central American species f), and the tail more or less graduated, 

 with some of the feathers, at least, more or less pointed; top of head 

 greenish, or at least not similar in color to the gorget (except in S. 

 floresii). 



The species of this genus, or subgenus, differ so much among them- 

 selves in points of structure that I am not able to give any better diag- 



*The Auk, Oct., 1886, p. 431. 



t S. torridus Salv., S. ardens Salv., and S. flammula Salv., have the tip of the outer 

 primary rouuded. 



