Nov., 1909 
197 
THE NESTING OF THE BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD 
By ARETUS A. SAUNDERS 
O N JUNE 28, 1909, a friend showed me a nest of the Broad-tailed Humming- 
bird ( SeZasp/ionts platycercus ) . The locality was Squaw Creek, in the West 
Gallatin Canyon, Gallatin County, Montana. The nest was placed on a 
dead branch of an alder, overhanging the stream and was composed of cottonwood 
down and covered with bits of lichen. It contained two eggs which my friend said 
had been there more than a week to his knowledge, so that incubation must have 
been well advanced. 
We sat down under the nest to watch for the bird, and had but a short time to 
wait before she appeared. She did not appear to notice us at all but flew immedi- 
ately to the nest, percht a moment on the rim and then settled on the eggs. I 
stept around to another position to get a stronger light on her, as I was at first a 
little uncertain of the species. I found that she was quite brilliantly markt for a 
female and had quite a large patch of metallic color on her throat. She was a 
very restless sitter, seldom staying on the nest for more than a minute at a time, 
but never going far away and always returning quickly. 
I had my camera with me and hoped to get a picture. The situation was not 
good, however, as the sunlight reacht the nest only for a few moments just before 
sunset, and then only thru the branches of surrounding trees. The nest was too 
high up to use a tripod, so I set a ladder against a neighboring tree and by climb- 
ing it was able to hold the camera within a few feet of the nest. The bird was 
very tame and gave me several opportunities for a picture without seeming to mind 
my presence at all. The pictures proved partial failures because of the poor light. 
On July 18, I was again in the vicinity and visited the nest. It now contained 
two well-grown young. The mother bird was not in sight, so I sat down to wait 
for her. It was fully half an hour before she appeared. She seemed much less 
tame than before, and flew about from one perch to another for fifteen minutes 
before she finally w r ent to the nest. She then percht on the rim, hesitated a 
moment, then fed the young in turn, ramming her bill down their throats and 
regurgitating the food in the usual hummingbird fashion. 
On August 18, 1909, I found another nest of this species in Bear Canyon, 
Gallatin County. This one was also beside a stream, placed on a projecting root 
under an overhanging bank, and was composed of the same materials. No bird 
was to be seen and the cold eggs had evidently been deserted for some time. I 
found the contents somewhat dried and incubation so far advanced that I was una- 
ble to save the shells. 
Anaconda, Montana. 
AN EARLY COLORADO ORNITHOLOGIST— WILLIAM G. SMITH 
By WILLIAM L. BURNETT 
WITH ONE PHOTO 
W E of the younger school of bird students in Colorado cannot help looking 
back with envy upon the early ornithological workers, those sturdy 
scientific pioneers who laid the foundation upon which the history of Col- 
orado ornithology is built: a foundation not laid upon the sands of inaccurate 
