THE HUMMING BIRDS 347 



Quite numerous at Inscription Rock, but at Apache during the month 

 of August they were seen literally by hundreds hovering over the beds 

 of brightly-tinted flowers, which in the mountains especially grow in 

 the greatest profusion on the borders of the mountain-streams. This 

 bird seems to affect no particular locality, but is about equally abun- 

 dant on the high mountains, in the open tracts of pine woods, in the val- 

 leys and deep canons, or, in fact, wherever flowers are found. The 

 males are very pugnacious, and wage unremitting warfare on all the 

 other species, as well as among themselves. Even as late as August it 

 was not uncommon to see these birds still in pairs, and established iu 

 certain areas, of which they appeared to consider themselves the sole 

 possessors, allowing no intruders. They manifested an especial ani- 

 mosity against the Broad-tailed Hummer, and, on the appearance of 

 one, would instantly dart forth with shrill, angry notes, and attack 

 and drive away the intruder, while the female, sitting on some neigh- 

 boring tree, would watch the oft-repeated contest with evident interest 

 and solicitude. At Camp Grant, dnriug the last days of September, 

 they were still numerous, but after leaving this point I did not again 

 see the species."* 



Mr. Henshaw found this species "quite common in summer through- 

 out California," and breeding " apparently as common iu the valleysas 

 in the mountains." He also found it breeding near the headwaters of 

 the Pecos River in New Mexico, and regarding their nesting there 

 says:t 



As to their nesting, it is a curious and almost unaccountable fact that notwith- 

 standing their great numbers we found but a single nest, and this after it was 

 deserted. Inquiry among the settlers showed that they had never chanced upon 

 their nests, audi judge that the greater part nest, as I found to be the case in Ari- 

 zona, in the upper limbs of the pines; occasionally they nest lower. The one I 

 found was on a dead aspen, not more than 10 feet from the ground. At the time 

 when they are building their nests may be readily found. One has only to follow 

 the birds straight to their nesting-sites as they bear away material in the shape of 

 conspicuous tufts of cottony down from the willows. 



It seems as though S. rufus must breed rather less abundantly in this locality than 

 S. platycercus ; at all events, while the former was much less common at and for a 

 considerable time after the date of our arrival, by August 1, when the males of S. 

 platycercus had about disappeared, the males of the former species were more numer- 

 ous than ever. This fact is attributed to a migratiou from somewhere further north, 

 though this locality is, in truth, about the most northern limit of the species in the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



A single S. rufus was seen September 15. It was the last bird of the season. 



Allen's Humming Bird. Selaspliorus alleni Hensh. 



SelaspJiorti8 alleni Hensh., Bull Nutt. Orn. Club, n, July, 1877, 53. 



Selaspliorus ruf us (part) Gould, Mon. Troch., pt. Ill, 1854, pi. 5 (green-backed speci- 

 mens); vol. in, 1861, pi. 141 (do.). — Elliot, Class, and Synop. Troch., 1879, 110 

 (excl. synonymy). 



Green-backed Humming Bird (Coues). 



*Rep. Orn. Spec. Wheeler's Exp., 1874, p. 131. 

 tThe Auk, vol. in, 1886, pp. 77,78. 



