116 THE CONDOR Vol. XX 



and in 1859 reported this species with others in a nominal list of the birds which 

 he had obtained at that place (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1859, p. 190). 

 Three years later Dr. J. G. Cooper noted its arrival at San Diego on April 22, 

 1862 (Ornith. Calif., p. 360), and also its occurrence at the most northern 

 point of its range, at Haywards, in 1876 (Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., 1876, p. 90). 

 Fifteen years later the Death Valley Expedition of 1891 determined the north- 

 ern limits of its range in the desert region in the interior. 



In May, 1876, Stephens found a nest of this species on the Gila River, New 

 Mexico, a few miles below old Fort West, but five years passed before the eggs 

 were discovered. In 1881 Belding obtained two nests with eggs (with one 

 broken egg in each set) at La Paz, Lower California, on the opposite side of 

 the Peninsula from Magdalena Bay. In the following year W. E. D. Scott 

 found a nest at Riverside, Arizona, but did not describe the eggs. Finally, on 

 May 15, 1883, B. T. Gault obtained a perfect set, and the first one found in 

 California, at Arrowhead Springs, San Bernardino County. In 1888 W. E. 

 Bryant found a nest with young on January 17 on Santa Margarita Island, 

 Magdalena Bay. Thus the first specimen, the first eggs, and the earliest nest 

 of the season were all found in the southern part of Lower California at locali- 

 ties only a few miles apart. Twenty years elapsed after the species was first 

 discovered before it was actually collected in California and nearly fifty years 

 intervened before the eggs were found in the state. 



The species was named in honor of Louis Marie Pantaleon de Costa, Mar- 

 quis de Beau-Regard, who served for ten years as a member from Chambery in 

 the French Chamber of Deputies. He was born at Marlioz, France, September 

 19, 1806, and died at Motte-Servolex, Savoie, France, September 19, 1864, on 

 his fifty-eighth birthday. At the age of fifteen he began to collect birds and 

 minerals and some years later brought together a beautiful collection of hum- 

 mingbirds which was one of the special subjects of his study. At the time the 

 species was named in his honor he was 33 years of age. 



The name Calypte costae (Bourcier) thus serves to recall several interest- 

 ing facts ornithological and otherwise; viz: (1) The visit of the "Venus" to 

 California and Lower California in the autumn of 1837; (2) the collections of 

 Dr. Neboux whose history is still unknown but whose name is linked with that 

 of the Swallow-tailed Gull, said to have been taken at Monterey — a record 

 which has not since been duplicated; (3) the first contribution of Bourcier to 

 the literature of North American birds; and (4) the Costa collection of hum- 

 mingbirds, the fate of which is now unknown. 



Washington, D. C, April 1, 1918. 



