July, 1901 I 
THIv CONDOR 
QUERY COLUMN. 
.\ns\vkks. 
6. Replying to Mr. Grinnell’s (piery, 
“Does the Rufous Hummingbird breed 
in California”?, so far as my observations 
go, it does. On April 14, 1896 I 
photographed a nest of what later 
proved to be Se/asphorus tmfus, as we 
shall see. This nest was placed in a 
climbing Cherokee rose, running over 
the rear gable of my home at Haywards. 
It might be asked how I knew this was 
a Rufous Hummingbird, since the males 
do not attend the females during ni- 
dification. Contrary to the observations 
of some late writers I have twice seen 
the male try to drive the female back to 
her nest, I had just stepped out on the 
porch at sun rise when I saw the female 
leave the nest, darting through another 
clinging rose at the end of the porch 
in an effort to pass behind it. The 
male made his appearance at once, 
darting down at the female bird and 
after a few sharp twitters of anger which 
seemed to settle the matter of her leav- 
ing the nest so early, they both passed 
out of sight and not once did I see the 
male again during the incubation 
period. 
The only other instance I have 
recorded of the male being seen was in 
the middle of June, 1879, while camp- 
ing in the lower end of Calaveras valley 
Santa Clara Co.. Cal. After setting up 
our table under a spreading sycamore 
and eating breakfast, a hummingbird 
flew off her nest some six feet above 
the top of our table. In this case the 
male was noted some half hour later 
trying to drive the female to her nest, 
which she later forsook altogether on 
account of the noise we made. 
W. Otto Emerson. 
Haywards, Cal. 
® ® W 
The minutes of the Southern Div- 
ision are omitted from this issue, not 
having been received up to the time of 
going to press. 
1 09 
.4 SLTU'OvSTION FOR FC)RMIN(t CRFB 
ch.\ptf:rs. 
.Vt the rate the club is increasing in mem- 
bership we shall soon be confronted with an 
entirely new condition and one that will de- 
mand different methods of procedure. in 
the past our membership has been located 
near the centers of most interest in ornithology 
and it was a comparatively easy matter for the 
members to meet at any stated place. 
The membership now, however, is spreading 
out constantly through the smaller towns 
until in Southern California, they are as far 
away from the present meeting places as 140 
miles. At that distance or even one-fourth of 
it, it is a serious and expensive undertaking 
to attend a meeting. The same is true of the 
Northern Division. 
The result is that many of our enthusiastic 
members are deprived of the plea.sure of at- 
tending the meetings of the club. This, in 
time, will force us to adopt different methods, 
and it occurs to me that at the present time it 
is proper to discuss the best methods of meet- 
ing it. I would therefore suggest for consider- 
ation the adoption of a plan whereby circles, 
extensions, local branches or wha'iever it is 
best to call them, of the club at large, under 
certain conditions, might be formed. For in- 
stance, we have an enthusiastic member in 
some town remote from present centers. It 
would be an easy matter for that member to 
find out those in the vicinit}' likely to be in- 
terested in ornithology (and it is sirrprisiug 
how much latent interest there is wdiich only 
needs arousing to bring it into activity). Then 
issue a call for a meeting, state the purposes of 
the club and get as many to join as is possi- 
ble. The local papers are alw'ays glad to help 
a movement of this sort, and man}' men not 
particularly interested in ornithology often 
lend their help by joining such a circle. One 
or two persons in a locality could easil}' start 
such a movement and with the addition of 
three or four more could form a strong nucleus 
which would rapidly grow into an active circle. 
Local officers could be elected and reports of 
meetings published in The Condor as at 
present. Under this system I believe the 
club at large would increase wonderfully in 
membership and the present members, scat- 
tered as they are, would derive much more 
benefit from their association with the club. 
Fr.-vnk S. Daggett. 
Pasadena, Cal. 
WWW 
Mr. and Mrs. C. Barlow spent two 
weeks in June in camping with I,. E. 
Taylor studying ornithology along the 
Placerville-Tahoe Road. 
