The Calliope Hummer 
feathers much produced to or beyond bend of wing—the whole distensible and radiating 
in excitement. Bill straight, black above, yellowish below. Adult female: With¬ 
out gorget; throat speckled with dusky or bronzy green; coloration of upperparts, 
save tail, as in male; central tail-feathers green, tipped with dusky; remaining rectrices 
greenish gray, mingled with rufous basally, crossed with black distally, broadly but 
decreasingly (toward center) tipped with white; underparts basally white, but more or 
less suffused with rufous, especially on sides. Young birds resemble adult female, 
but are still more heavily washed with rufous below and (male only) with more ex¬ 
tensive speckling on throat. Length of adult male about 70 (2.76); wing 38.7 (1.52); 
tail 20 (.79); bill 14.3 (.56). Adult female about 75 (2.95); wing 42.8 (1.68); tail 21.5 
(.85); bill 15.6 (.61). 
Recognition Marks. —Pygmy size—the smallest of the birds of California, 
and after the Helena Hummer (Calypte helence), av. mm 58, and the Vervain Hummer 
(Mellisuga minima ), which averages mm 61 in length, one of the least of birds. Gorget 
of male with radiating feathers of rose-purple, distinctive; but female and young difficult 
to distinguish afield from those of Selasphorus rufus—less rufous, especially on rump 
and tail, where little or none visible in calliope. 
Nesting. — Nest: Composed chiefly of white plant-down (seed-pappus), covered 
externally with fine mosses, gray bark-shreds, or vegetable miscellany, held in place with 
cobwebs, saddled on horizontal or descending branch (preferably a dead one) of bush 
or evergreen tree, at any height—1 to 60 feet of record. Eggs: 2; elliptical oval; 
pure white. Av. of 16 eggs in M. C. O. coll.: from Mono Co., 11.7 x 7.72 (.46 x .304); 
index 66. Av. of 8 eggs taken by Grinnell in San Bernardino Mountains 12.2 x 8.6 
(.48 x .34); index 71. Season: June; one brood. 
General Range. —“Breeds in mountains of Canadian zone from southern 
British Columbia and southern Alberta, to southern California and northern New 
Mexico; winters in Mexico south to Guerrero; casual in Wyoming and Colorado” 
(A. O. U. Com.). 
Distribution in California. —Resident in summer in the higher mountain 
ranges from the upper limits of Upper Sonoran zone to timberline, and from the San 
Jacinto Mountains north to Shasta and the Warners; west to Mt. Pinos, and to Wildcat 
Peak in Siskiyou County (Grinnell). Most abundant along the east slopes of the cen¬ 
tral Sierras. Of more general occurrence during migrations. 
Authorities.—Xantus (Calothorox calliope ), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1859, 
p. 190 (Ft. Tejon); Feilner , Ann. Rep. Smithson. Inst, for 1864 (1865), p. 429 (dis¬ 
covery of nest and eggs; at Yreka ); Lucas, Auk, vol. x., 1893, p. 311 (food); Bendire, 
Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, p. 219 (habits; nest and eggs); Widmann, Auk, 
vol. xxi., 1904, p. 69 (Yosemite Valley; nuptial flight); Mailliard, J. W., Condor, 
vol. xxiii., 1921, p. 75, fig. (Lake Tahoe; desc. nesting sites). 
ORNITHOLOGISTS have been hard put to it to provide names for 
these most exquisite of birds, the Hummers. In default of an authorita¬ 
tive dictionary of the Colibrian dialect by a native Hummingbird, we 
have been obliged to call poetic imagination to the aid of our own poor 
stammering tongues. The realm of callilithology, chromatics, esthetics, 
astronomy, history, classical mythology, and a score beside, have been 
laid under tribute to secure such fanciful and high sounding titles as 
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