The Calliope Hummer 
of flowers. Without doubt the mind remembers longest those birds 
which visit the mountain heather beds, gorgeous with flowers, and varied 
beyond description. A bit of heather on a northern peak, where we 
camped at an elevation of 8,000 feet, yielded thirty-two species of plants 
in conspicuous bloom within a stone’s throw of the breakfast table. The 
Hummers appear to be attracted to the flower-beds by color and position 
rather than by scent; and as surely as we neglected to rise with the sun, 
a troop of puzzled honey-hunters hovered by turns over our parti-colored 
blankets. Once a Hummer minutely inspected a red bandana hand¬ 
kerchief which graced the bird-man’s neck; and once, I regret to say it, 
fluttered for some moments before his nose (sunburned!). 
The gorgeous flower-beds of the “cattle country,” especially those 
found on the innermost ranges of San Luis Obispo and San Benito coun¬ 
ties, often detain these Hummers, during migrations. On the 21st of 
April, near La Panza, I observed a male as he fed in the clumps of Owl 
Clover (Orthocarpus purpurascens ) or rested on low limbs. Or perhaps 
one should not speak of his resting, for as he sat he flirted his wings and 
screwed from side to side in conscious vanity. He is a tearing beauty, 
you know. 
But goodness gracious! What an awful temper His Niblets, the 
Maharajah of Bullypore, really has! Once, in Modoc County, when a 
Pygmy Nuthatch had, much to my satisfaction, alighted upon the tip 
of a half-dead juniper, and served notice that he was about to show me 
his domicile, one of these dashing Star Hummers set upon him so viciously 
that the astonished bird fell off his perch and hugged the tree trunk in¬ 
stead. Even here the Nuthatch was not safe, for the Hummer darted 
and buzzed like a giant bumble bee, adding, I believe, a vocal tone to the 
noise of its wings, until the terrified Nuthatch dropped ten feet further and 
then fled outright. Very valiant, to be sure, the Maharajah looked as he 
resumed his station on the topmost twig of the juniper, and let the wind 
toy with his streaming cravat. Then he caught sight of the bird-man 
and dived down to utter some offensive threats, grinding them out 
horribly, as between clenched teeth. I should have heeded, too, if the 
gallant had been, say, a hundred times bigger. 
In common with most of our Hummers, the Calliope conducts an 
ardent courtship by means of headlong dashes from the sky. It is a 
sight well worth seeing when one of these elfin gallants, flashing like a 
jewel and bristling with self-consciousness, mounts slowly upward on 
vibrating wings to a height of a hundred feet, then darts back with the 
speed of lightning to make an affectionate pass at the placid lady on a 
twig below. Or, occasionally, the tactics are reversed, and the amoret 
settles slowly through the air as though smitten by Cupid’s dart, and 
