360 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
August 11, 20, and 29, 1913 (Kalmbach). It was still present September 9, 1900, 
at 7,700 feet in the Jemez Canyon (Bailey); September 16, 1899, at Albuquerque 
(Birtwell); and at Luna September 6,1908 (Birdseye); while it was noted until about 
September 10, 1903, in the JicariUa Mountains (Gaut); one was taken in the Burro 
Mountains as late as September 18,1908 (Goldman); and one taken on Truchas Peak 
at the very late date of September 24, 1898 (Birtwell). 
On the return in the spring the arrival of the first was noted April 4, 1889, at 
Cooney, and April 10, 1890, at Carlisle (Barrell); also April 28 at Chloride (Ligon). 
The above given localities with the Guadalupe Mountains mark the eastern limit of 
the range of the species in New Mexico, whence it extends west into Arizona.— 
W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Usually within 15 feet from the ground on branches of Douglas spruce, 
cottonwood, and other trees, often overhanging streams; made of cottony vegetable 
down coated with lichen, bark fibers, mosses, leaves, or plant fibers. Eggs: 2, white. 
Food. —Insects found in flowers, as pentstemon, larkspur, agave, gilia, goose¬ 
berry, and on willow catkins. 
General Habits. —The Broad-tailed Hummingbird, with the deep 
rose gorget and green crown, is one of the most abundant birds of the 
New Mexico mountain region. Its characteristic machine-like click¬ 
ing, suggestive of the buzz of the cicada, made, Mr. Henshaw explains, 
by the “attenuation of the outer primaries,” was heard by us at all 
levels from the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains at 7,400 feet 
up to 12,700 feet at the highest terrace on the side of Wheeler Peak 
where there was water; for during the season it follows the successively 
blooming flowers up the mountain sides. 
When it first comes north, Major Bendire says, it is comparatively 
common in the lower foothills and valleys, where it raises its first brood, 
but by the time the young leave the nest the flowers of the lower levels 
are going out of bloom, so it goes up to the higher mountain parks 
to raise its second brood. By this time the first broods are “well 
able to take care of themselves and can be seen frolicking about every¬ 
where.” “These vertical migrations,” Major Bendire adds, “frequently 
account for the entire disappearance of certain species in summer 
from localities where they have been exceedingly numerous a couple 
of months earlier, and the gradual diminution or actual scarcity of the 
food supply plainly accounts for the sudden change in their habitat” 
(1895, p. 211). 
While wandering males were found during the fall migration up to 
12,700 feet, in the Sangre de Cristos, a little later one was collected at 
8,200 feet in Hondo Canyon. When picked up his bill was capped with 
the pink tube of a horsemint ( Monarda ), that was blooming abundantly 
at that level at the time, and whose color his gorget matched well in 
certain lights, lhe big greenish-yellow lousewort also seemed to be 
a favorite flower with platycercus , and we saw him frequently about 
purple larkspur, red pentstemon, and gilia. In the Sacramento Moun¬ 
tains at 9,000 feet we found the Broad-tails abundant the last of May 
