The Allen Hummer 
during summer dispersal found in mountains of southern California, Arizona, and 
Chihuahua. 
Distribution in California. —Common summer resident in the humid coastal 
strip south to Santa Barbara and Santa Paula; early migrant, arriving in late January 
in the San Diegan district; during summer dispersal found in the mountains—Mt. 
Pinos and southeastward; present throughout the year and possibly resident on the 
Santa Barbara Islands. 
Authorities.—Heermann ( Selasphorus rufus), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 
2, vol. ii., 1853, p. 269 (San Francisco, summer); Henshaw, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vol. 
ii., 1877, p. 53 (orig. desc.; type locality, Nicasio, Marin Co.); Bendire , Life Hist. N. Am. 
Birds, vol. ii., 1895, p. 216; Howell , Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 12, 1917, p. 63 (s. Calif. 
Ids.); Bassett, Condor, vol. xxiii., 1921, p. 37, fig. (nuptial flight). 
IT IS AMUSING, in the light of later experience, to read the early 
accounts of the nesting of the “Rufous” Hummer in California. Thus 
Dr. Cooper, 1 under the caption of Selasphorus rufus, solemnly records the 
finding of a nest on Catalina Island, and mentions that some also build 
about San Francisco. It remained for Mr. Charles A. Allen, of Nicasio, 
to discover, in the late Seventies, that the common hummer of the 
coastal region of California is something different—a perfectly distinct 
species from S. rufus, although closely related to it. We now know 
Selasphorus alleni to be the commonest and in many localities the ex¬ 
clusive species in western California, yielding first place to Calypte anna 
in the southern portion of the coastal ranges. For all that it is so common, 
it is not by any means the best known, for of our seven species, Allen’s 
is consistently the most retiring and secretive, as well as the wildest 
when found. 
It is on this account that we must look to the oologist for such 
scraps of information as we possess about this most interesting species. 
It is, perhaps, as much as one’s reputation is worth in these parlous 
times of pity to undertake to defend the practice of bird-nesting. But 
as a hardened offender I shall confess that I have found the keenest 
delight in the pursuit of Hummingbirds’ nests. The quarry, albeit 
abundant, is so elusive, so tiny, and wrought in so fine a harmony with 
its surroundings, that the collector is put upon his highest mettle. The 
quest enlists all the faculties of mind, and requires the most alert at¬ 
tention. A flash, a wing-buzz, a suspected bit of moss—these are the 
things that must be heeded, if success is to come. The trophies them¬ 
selves are among the most dainty specimens of architecture the world 
affords, even if one be so well fortified as to resist the appeal of the two 
tiny, pinkish, elongated pearls which they contain. Moreover, the quest, 
ardently pursued, leads most certainly, through its exercise of fine dis- 
1 Ornithology of California, Vol. I., Land Birds (1870), p. 356. 
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