WHITE-THROATED SWIFT.
425. Aeronautes melanoleucus. 6½ inches.
A handsome bird, in fact, the most beautiful and graceful of this family. Its flight is very rapid, and they congregate in thousands about the tops of inaccessible cliffs, where in small burrows in the earth or under the sods, or in crevices they build their nests, which are generally made of roots and grasses and lined with feathers. Four or five dull white eggs are laid (.85 × .50).
Range.—Western United States, mostly in the Rocky Mountains, and in California ranges north to Canada borders.
RIVOLI HUMMINGBIRD.—Family Trochilidæ.
426. Eugenes fulgens. 5 inches.
This is one of the most gorgeous of the Hummers, having the crown a violet purple color, and the throat a changeable brilliant green. Upper parts a bronze green, the under parts almost a black. Female lacks all the brilliant colors of the male. Upper parts dull green, under parts greenish gray, top of head brownish with a small white spot back of the eye. This species saddles its nest upon the branches, generally for its favorite tree selecting a maple or sycamore, and usually at from twenty to thirty feet from the ground.
