Jan., 1921 FROM FIELD AND STUDY 37 
woods along the beaches by October 9, and remained so throughout the following win- 
ter. In fact, in this locality it proved to be a much more common bird in» winter than 
in summer. Numerous specimens were taken during the winter months but few toward 
spring, as at this latter season they become so fat as to be difficult of preparation. 
The fact that this bird winters commonly at the southern end of the Alexander 
Archipelago must necessarily modify Swarth’s definition of its winter habitat in Ore- 
gon and northern California.—GrorGk WILLETT, Wrangell, Alaska, November 1, 1920. 
The Nuptial Flight of the Allen Hummingbird.—The description of the nuptial 
flight of the Anna Hummingbird (Hunt, Connor, xx1r, p. 109) has prompted me to offer 
an account of the mating antics of the Allen Hummingbird. 
On the afternoon of April 16, 1920, I was walking through the hills back of the 
Claremont Club golf links when I was brought to a halt by a rather prolonged buzzing 
sound, very penetrating and metallic in quality, somewhat similar to the sound pro- 
duced by drawing a fine-grained file over the edge of a piece of sheet steel with a sud- 
den jerk. Looking in the direction of the sound I saw poised in the air about twenty- 
five feet from the ground, a male Allen Hummingbird (Selasphorus alleni), ut- 
tering his commonly heard mouse-like squeaks. Then followed the performance 
of the nuptial flight, similar to that of the Anna Hummingbird, though the path 
described in the air was somewhat different. He “rocked” back and forth over 
the female, which was perched on a twig of a low poison oak (Rhus diversiloba), 
describing a semi-circle about twenty-five feet in diameter. There was a pause 
at each end of the arc, and before the pause he spread his tail and shook his, 
whole body so violently that I wondered how his feathers remained fast. Dur- 
ing this time he continued uttering the characteristic squeaks. After several of 
these semi-circles were described he began his climb to a height of about sey- 
enty-five feet; and then came the “high dive’. He swooped down with the 
speed of a comet, and on passing over the female gave the low-pitched but reso- | 
nant buzzing sound which had first attracted my attention; then he curved up- | 
ward and came to a pause about twenty-five feet in the air, where I had first 
seen him. The sound emitted on passing over the female was of a seccnd or 
more in duration, and differed greatly from the instantaneous, metallic clink of 
the Anna Hummingbird. 
Following the accompanying diagram in which X represents the female, 
he started at A, describing the arc AB with the violent shaking just before ar- 
riving at B. After a short pause at B (one or two seconds) he returned to C, 
repeating the shaking just before arriving, and again 
pausing. This much of the performance he usually 
repeated one or more times, thus describing several 
semi-circles from A to B and from Bto C. The last 
time from C, instead of pausing he continued upward 
with a slow, heavy flight, describing spirals or undu- 
lations until he reached the top at D, when, without 
pause, he made the downward swoop, sometimes 
bringing up at E to recommence the whole perform- Xx 
ance, and at other times darting off to perch a few 
yards distant for awhile and then return. 
Mr. Hunt states (loc. cit.) that he does 
not know whether the Anna Hummingbird ad- 
heres rigidly to the evolutions described or whether it varies them. I had the good 
fortune on the morning of March 15, 1920, at Washington Park, Alameda, to witness the 
nuptial flight of this bird and it was slightly different from his description. My bird, in 
making the long dive from c to d (fig. 27, loc. cit.) made a sudden jump of about six 
feet to the left at a point about opposite a, and then continued his downward swoop to @. 
Otherwise this performance was identical with that described by Mr. Hunt.—FRANK N. 
Bassett, Alameda, California, September 2, 1920. 
D 
Fig. 8. DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING 
THE NUPTIAL FLIGHT OF THE 
MALE ALLEN HUMMINGBIRD. 
A Unique Visitor.—On the tenth day of October, nineteen hundred and twenty, at 
one o'clock in the afternoon, after two days of intermittent showers—some heavy, some 
light—a beautiful young:gull landed on the woodpile in back of our cottage, which is 
