HUMMINGBIRDS: RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD 
365 
happened to be feasting upon a choice bunch of flowers when a Rufous 
appeared upon the stage, his angry demand to vacate was seldom 
ignored” (1892, p. 363). 
On the Upper Pecos, in 1883, Mr. Henshaw found the Broad-tailed 
and Rufous Hummers from about 7,500 feet far up on the mountain 
sides, as high up as suitable flowers afforded them means of subsistence, 
though they were most numerous from 8,000 to 9,000 feet. They 
frequented almost exclusively a species of red Scrophularia that grows 
in clumps in certain spots in the valleys, and upwards of fifty birds 
could often be counted within the area of a few yards in these flower 
patches. As he wrote—“From early dawn till dusk the humming¬ 
birds throng around these plants intent in surfeiting themselves on 
honey and the minute insects that the honey attracts. Males and 
females all flock to the common feeding ground, and as the hummers, 
especially the Rufous-backed, are pugnacious and hot-tempered in the 
extreme, the field becomes a constant battle-ground whereon favorite 
flowers and favorite perching grounds are contested for with all the 
ardor that attaches to more important conquests” (1886, p. 76). 
On their nesting grounds the interesting courtship display of the 
Rufous has been carefully watched and graphically described by Mr. 
G. D. Sprot. As the brilliant male swung up in the air, he tells us, 
the female was “sitting motionless on some twig of the low-growing 
underbrush, and as the aerial acrobat reached the limit of his upward 
flight she was seen to turn her head slightly and glance admiringly 
aloft. The male ascended usually with his back towards his mate, 
then turning, faced her, and with gorget fully expanded descended 
swiftly until within an inch or two of her, when spreading both wings 
and tail he checked himself and soared aloft again to repeat the per¬ 
formance, or else settle on some nearby bush. As he checked his 
flight the whining note was produced, undoubtedly by the rush of air 
through the outspread feathers (1927, pp. 71-72). 
In the nesting season of the Rufous in Alaska, Mr. Alfred M. 
Bailey had a most unusual experience. He says—“I was walking 
along the base of a precipitous cliff when I noticed the handsome little 
male hovering over my head about twenty feet up, and was then sur¬ 
prised to see him climb into a nest, in the terminal branches of a droop¬ 
ing spruce. When incubating, the little male squatted far down in 
the nest, with tail and beak pointed almost vertically, and he proved 
so tame that I believe I could have touched him” (1927, p. 353). 
Additional Literature. —Du Bois, A. D., Condor, XXV, 157-159, 1923 
(experiment).— Finley, W. L., American Birds, 3-12, 1907; Condor, VII, 59-62, 
1905.— Gilliland, Mrs. Frank, Bird-Lore, XXIX, 171-172, 1927 (a pet).— 
Kobbe, W. L., Auk, XVII, 8-15, 1900. 
