HUMMINGBIRDS: BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD 357 
side of the female and will then turn and swoop down at a fearful speed, 
passing perhaps within a few inches of the watching female and ascend¬ 
ing in the air to complete a half circle. . . The noise that the male 
makes in doing his fancy dive is easily heard at some distance and quite 
often heard when the bird himself is not visible on account of the 
extreme speed at which he travels on his downward plunge” (1912, 
pp. 76-77). The arc of this “nuptial flight” is described by Mr. 
Woods as “an immense letter U” and he adds that the Costa “often 
ends his series of loops by darting away at high speed in an erratic, 
zigzagging flight” (1927, p. 302). 
While male hummingbirds are almost never seen at the nest, on the 
Gila River Mr. Frank Stephens saw a male Costa actually helping to 
build/ He says, “I distinctly saw him fly to a spider web and gather 
it in or on his bill while on the wing. He appeared to be winding it 
about his bill. . . When no more of the web was left in sight, he flew 
a few yards across the gulch, and I saw he was busy at the nest” (in 
Bendire, 1895, p. 203). 
Additional Literature.—Torrey, Bradford, Nature’s Invitation, 233-241, 
1904.— Woods, R. S., Condor, XXIV, 189-193, 1922; XXV, 195-198,1923; Auk, 
XLIV, 297-314, 1927. 
BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD: Selasphorus platycercus (Swainson) 
Plate 36 
Description. — Male: Length about 4-4.2 inches, wing 1.9-2, tail 1.4-1.6, bill 
.6-.7. Female: Length 4.1-4.7 inches, wing 2-2.1, tail 1.4-1.5, bill .7. Male with 
outside wing quill narrowed and awl-like and recurved at tip; tail with 6 middle 
feathers about equal length in both sexes; tarsus mainly fea¬ 
thered. Adult male: Entire upperparts, including top of head 
and middle tail feathers, bronze-green; other tail feathers 
dull purplish or bronzy black, next to middle feathers usual¬ 
ly glossed with green and some of them edged with brown; 
wing quills dusky, faintly glossed with purplish; gorget metallic 
deep rose pink or reddish purple; rest of underparts pale 
grayish, sides overlaid with green and flanks tinged with cin¬ 
namon; iris dark brown, bill dull black, feet dusky. Adult 
female: Upperparts metallic bronze-green, including middle 
tail feathers which are sometimes dusky at tip; dusky portion 
wider on adjoining pair; three outer pairs broum at base, and 
broadly tipped with white, with purplish, bronzy, black and 
green between; throat whitish, with dusky or bronzy specks; 
rest of underparts more or less brownish wdiite or bully; sides 
brownish. 
Comparisons. —The genus Selasphorus is closely related 
to Archilochus and Calyple , but in Selasphorus the tail, instead 
of being emarginate, is rounded or graduated, strongly rounded in the females and 
young. The Broad-tailed, Costa, and Calliope have somewhat similarly colored 
gorgets although that of Costa is more amethyst than pink; but the Broad-tailed 
Fig. 61. Tail of male 
Broad-tailed Hum¬ 
ming bird 
Fig. 62. Tail of 
female Broad¬ 
tailed Humming¬ 
bird 
