RUFF-NECKED HUMMING-BIRD. 201 



that for some time I searched the ground instead of the air, for the actor in 

 the scene. At other times, the males were seen darting up high in the air, 

 and whirling about each other in great anger, and with much velocity. 

 After these manoeuvres the aggressor returned to the same dead twig, where 

 for days he regularly took his station with all the courage and angry 

 vigilance of a King-bird. The angry hissing or bleating note of this species 

 seems something like ivht 't H 't H sh vee, tremulously uttered as it whirls 

 and sweeps through the air, like a musket-ball, accompanied also by 

 something like the whirr of the Night-hawk. On the 29th of May, I found 

 a nest of this species in a forked branch of the Nootka Bramble, Rubus 

 Nutkanus. The female was sitting on two eggs, of the same shape and 

 colour as those of the common species. The nest also was perfectly similar, 

 but somewhat deeper. As I approached, the female came hovering round 

 the nest, and soon after, when all was still, she resumed her place con- 

 tentedly." 



Mr. Townsend's note is as follows: — "Nootka Sound Humming-bird, 

 Trochilus rufus, Ah-puets-Rinne of the Chinooks. On a clear day the 

 male may be seen to rise to a great height in the air, and descend instantly 

 near the earth, then mount again to the same altitude as at first, performing 

 in the evolution the half of a large circle. During the descent it emits a 

 strange and astonishingly loud note, which can be compared to nothing but 

 the rubbing together of the limbs of trees during a high wind. I heard this 

 singular note repeatedly last spring and summer, but did not then discover 

 to what it belonged. I did not suppose it to be a bird at all, and least of all 

 a Humming-bird. The observer thinks it almost impossible that so small a 

 creature can be capable of producing so much sound. I have never observed 

 this habit upon a dull or cloudy day." 



Mr. Nuttall having presented me with the nest of this species attached 

 to the twig to which the bird had fastened it, my amiable friend Miss 

 Martin has figured it for me, as well as the plant, about which these lovely 

 creatures are represented. The nest, which measures two inches and a 

 quarter in height, and an inch and three quarters in breadth, at the upper 

 part, is composed externally of mosses, lichens, and a few feathers, with 

 slender fibrous roots interwoven, and lined with fine cottony seed-down. 



Trochilus rdfus, Gmel. Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 497. 



Trochilus (Selasphorus) rufus, Cinnamon or Nootka Humming-bird, Swains, and 



Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 324. 

 Ruffed-necked Humming-bird, Trochilus rufus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 555. 



Male, 3 T 7 2, wing, 1-^f . 



Vol. IV. 28 



