234 
HUMMINGBIRDS 
Mr. Willard of Tombstone, Arizona, says that the noise made by 
the wings of the Rivoli hummingbird lacks the sharpness of that of 
the smaller hummers and compares it to the buzzing of an im¬ 
mense beetle or bumblebee. He adds that the male may often be 
seen near the top of some dead tree catching insects like a flycatcher. 
Mr. W. W. Price reports that the hummers feed from iris and also 
agave flowers. In the Chiricahua Mountains Dr. Fisher found them 
gleaning from the flowers of a boreal honeysuckle. Mr. Price 
records them only between the altitudes of from 6500 to 9500 feet. 
GENUS CCELIGENA. 
427- COBligena clemenciae Less. Blue-throated Hummingbird. 
Tail more than two thirds as long as wing, slightly rounded, feathers 
very broad; bill less than one third as long 
as wing. Adult male: gorget azure blue; 
streak from bill and back of eye white ; up¬ 
per parts dull bronzy green, changing to 
purplish black on upper tail coverts and 
tail, outer tail feathers tipped with white ; 
under parts slate gray washed with green on 
sides. Adult female: similar, but throat 
huffy instead of blue. Length : 4.50-5.40, 
wing 2.90-3.20, tail 1.85-2.20, exposed cul- 
men .85-1.00. 
Remarks. — The females of the blue- 
throated and the Rivoli can be easily dis¬ 
tinguished by the tail, which in the blue- 
throated is blue black, in the Rivoli largely 
bronzy green. 
Distribution. — Southern Arizona, western 
Texas, and mountains of the tablelands of Mexico to Oaxaca. 
Nest. — Fine mosses and oak catkins, bound together with web, placed 
in the fork of a small shrub, or on a fern. (Breniger.) Eggs: 2, white. 
Among the little restless, darting, scintillating hummers of the 
United States, the big, quiet, sober-colored blue-throats seem more 
like foreign birds, and really are only visitors across our border from 
Mexico. Whether bathing in the spray of a slender mountain fall, 
or feeding from flower to flower, they have a low hum and quiet 
ways, perching frequently on a branch to twitter a little song and 
preen their feathers, or climbing about among the flowers of a big 
agave in search of food in real oriole fashion. Vernon Bailey. 
GENUS TROCHILUS. 
General Characters. — Male with metallic gorget not elongated on the 
sides ; tail forked or deeply emarginate, the feathers 
pointed, but the outside ones not extremely narrow; 
six inner primaries abruptly and conspicuously smaller 
than the rest with their inner web more or less notched 
or toothed at tip. Females with outer tail feathers concave on side. 
Fig. 305. 
From Ridgway, Smithsonian. 
Fig. 304. 
