Dr. W. J. Hoffman writes, in relation to this species, that on the 20th of July, 1871, being in camp at Big Pines, a place about twenty-seven miles north of Camp Independence, California, on a mountain stream, the banks of which are covered with an undergrowth of cottonwood and small bushes, he frequently saw and heard Humming-Birds flying around him. He at length discovered a nest, which was perched on a limb directly over the swift current, where it was sometimes subjected to the spray. The limb was but half an inch in thickness, and the nest was attached to it by means of thin fibres of vegetable material and hairs. It contained two eggs. The parents were taken, and proved to be this species. There were many birds of the same kind at this point, constantly on the tops of the small pines in search of insects.
Genus TROCHILUS, Linnæus.
Trochilus, Linnæus, Systema Naturæ, 1748 (Agassiz).
Trochilus colubris.
1101 ♀
Gen. Char. Metallic gorget of throat nearly even all round. Tail forked; the feathers lanceolate, acute, becoming gradually narrower from the central to the exterior. Inner six primaries abruptly and considerably smaller than the outer four, with the inner web notched at the end.
Trochilus colubris. ♂
1100
The female has the outer tail-feathers lanceolate, as in the male, though much broader. The outer feathers are broad to the terminal third, where they become rapidly pointed, the tip only somewhat rounded; the sides of this attenuated portion (one or other, or both) broadly and concavely emarginated, which distinguishes them from the females of Selasphorus and Calypte, in which the tail is broadly linear to near the end, which is much rounded without any distinct concavity.
A peculiarity is observable in the wing of the two species of Trochilus as restricted, especially in T. colubris, which we have not noticed in other North American genera. The outer four primaries are of the usual shape, and diminish gradually in size; the remaining six, however, are abruptly