THE HUMMING BIRDS. 357 



common summer resident at Buzzard Inlet, British Columbia. It has 

 not yet been taken in Colorado ; but it may be expected to occur in the 

 western portion of that State, since the present writer found it to be 

 not uncommon in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, where in fact it was 

 almost as numerous as was Selasphorus platycercus. Mr. Henshaw 

 found it rather numerous in summer along the Upper Pecos River, in 

 New Mexico. In the Santa Catalina Mountains of southern Arizona it 

 appears to be merely a transient, Mr. Scott* having met with it only 

 during April and August, only a single example having been seen by 

 him on each occasion, and he observes that Mr. Herbert Brown has 

 not found it about Tucson, nor indeed at other points in Arizona vis- 

 ited by him. Hence we may infer that it is, like the Rufous Humming 

 Bird, essentially a northern or alpine species, so far as its breeding 

 range is concerned. 



Regarding its probable breeding in northern New Mexico, Mr. Hen- 

 shaw writes as follows :t 



This, the most diminntive of oar Hummers, is rather numerous in summer in the 

 locality in question, much further north than which it does not go.| The species has 

 not yet been detected in Colorado, though I doubt not but that the higher mountains 

 of the southern portion of that State afford a summer home for some of them. It is 

 a curious fact in couuection with the history of this species, as well as that of the 

 S. rufus, that while both of them range far to the northward in the Sierra Nevada, 

 reaching Washington Territory, and even going beyond into Alaska, they yet decline to 

 visit even the middle portion of the Rocky Mountains, but confine their range to their 

 southern parts. The Calliope Hummer is, as compared with the other species men- 

 tioned, a rare bird. It is also much less obtrusive, and in the contests of its larger 

 neighbors it takes no part. When assailed, as it promptly is by the other kinds, it 

 at once darts away to another spot where it can feed without molestation. It appears 

 to be timid in every way, so much so that it is not an easy bird to collect. An ntterly 

 unaccountable fact noticed in couuection with this species was the apparent rarity 

 of females. Up to August 10 I had seen perhaps half a dozen, though constantly on 

 the watch for them, while I had certainly seen not less than ten times that number 

 of males. Subsequent to that date I saw a few more, but nothing like the number 

 of males. 



By September the young were numerous in certain localities, notably in a large 

 sunflower patch. 



Some points in the breeding habits of the Calliope Humming Bird are 

 thus described by Dr. Merrill, in the Auk for July, 1888, p. 257, the 

 locality being Fort Klamath, Oregon: 



First taken May 17. A few Hummers, apparently of this species, had been seen 

 for 10 days before this date, but they were not abundant until the 16th, after which 

 the males were common about the blossoms of wild currant and gooseberry bushes. 

 During the breeding season they are generally distributed, and are to be found in deep 

 pine woods as well as in more open places, the constant sharp, shrill notes of the males 

 indicating their presence and abundance. When pairing soon after their arrival, 

 and with less frequency during the period of incubation, the males have a habit ef 

 poising themselves for some seconds at a height of 30 or 40 feet above the ground, and 

 then dashing down nearly to the earth, rising as quickly to poise again, and repeating 



* See The Auk, vol. in, 1886, pp. 431, 432. 

 t The Auk, vol. in, p. 78. 



t It has, however, subsequently been recorded from localities very much farther 

 north. — R. R. 



