A. O. U. No. 429. Trochilus alexandri Bourc. & Muls.
Synonyms.—Alexander Hummingbird. Sponge Hummer.
Description.—Adult male: Upperparts including middle pair of tail-feathers shining bronzy green; wing-quills and remaining rectrices fuscous with purplish reflections; tail double-rounded, its feathers broadly acuminate, and central pair of feathers about .12 shorter than the third pair, the outermost pair shorter than middle pair; the gorget chiefly opaque velvety black, on each side of the median line a small irregular patch of metallic orange, or else with various jewelled iridescence posteriorly; remaining underparts white, heavily tinged with greenish on sides, elsewhere lightly tinged with dusky and dull rufous; bill slender, straight. Adult female: Similar to male in coloration but without gorget, a few dusky specks instead; tail different, single-rounded, central feathers like back in coloration, and scarcely shorter than succeeding pairs, remaining feathers with broad subterminal space of purplish black, and tipped with white, lateral feathers scarcely acuminate, the outermost barely emarginate on inner web. Length of adult male: about 3.50 (88.9); wing 1.75 (44.5); tail 1.25 (31.8); bill .75 (19.1). Female, length about 4.00 (101.6); wing 1.95 (49.5).
Recognition Marks.—Pygmy size; black gorget of male distinctive; female larger than in Stellula calliope, with which alone it is likely to come into comparison.
Nesting.—Nest: Of plant down secured by cobwebs, saddled upon small descending branch at moderate height, or lashed to twigs of small fork. Eggs: 2 or, rarely, 3, pure white, elliptical oval in shape. Av. size, .50 × .33 (12.7 × 8.3). Season: May or June according to altitude; one brood.
General Range.—Western United States, except the northern Pacific coast district, north in the interior into British Columbia, breeding south to northern Lower California and east to the Rocky Mountains; south in winter into Mexico.
Range in Washington.—Not common summer resident east of the Cascades only.
Authorities.—? Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II. 1895, p. 199 (inferential). Dawson, Auk, Vol. XIV. Apr. 1897, p. 175. Sr. Ss². J.
Specimens.—(U. of W.) P¹. C.
Those of us, who as children were taught to call lady-bugs “lady-birds,” might have been pardoned some uncertainty as to the whereabouts of the dividing line between insects and birds, especially if, to the vision of the “Hum-bird’s” wings shimmering by day above the flower bed, was added the twilight visits of the hawk-moths not a whit smaller. The Hummer is painted like a butterfly; its flight is direct and buzzing like a bee’s; it seeks its food at the flower’s brim by poising on rapidly vibrating wing like the hawk-moth; but there the resemblances cease. For the rest it is a bird, migrating, mating, and nesting quite like grown folks.
While more than five hundred species of Hummingbirds—and these all confined to the New World—are known to science, those which have looked northward at all have shown a decided preference for the Pacific Coast. Thus, we have four species in Washington, and we send our boldest member, Selasphorus rufus, as far north as the St. Elias range in Alaska, while our friends east of the Mississippi River know only one species, the Ruby-throat, Trochilus colubris, which is own cousin, and only own cousin to our T. alexandri.
Contrary to the popular belief Hummers do not feed largely upon nectar, but insert their needle-bills into the depths of flowers mainly for the purpose of capturing insects. This explains the otherwise puzzling habit the birds have of revisiting the same flower beds at frequent intervals. It is not to gather new-flowing sweets, but to see what flies the sweets themselves have gathered. If a Hummingbird extracted honey to any great extent—it does some—it would be rifling the bait from its own traps. Again, the bird is not footless, as some suppose, for it spends a good deal of time perching on exposed limbs, from which it may dart, Flycatcher fashion, after passing insects.
Nor is the bird quite songless. At La Claire’s, on the banks of the Pend d’Oreille River, we once witnessed a very pretty episode in the life of the Black-chinned Hummer. We were passing beside a brush-and-log fence in a clearing, when we noticed the rocking song-flight of a male Black-chin. The bird first towered to a height of forty feet, or such a matter, with loudly buzzing wing, then descended noisily in a great loop, passing under a certain projecting branch in the fence, and emitting along the lower segment of his great semicircle a low, musical, murmuring sound of considerable beauty. This note, inasmuch as we stood near one end of the fairy lover’s course, was raised in pitch a musical third upon each return journey. Back and forth the ardent hero passed, until he tired at length and darted off to tap a Canada lily for nourishment, or the pretense of it. Then he perched on a twig at ten feet and submitted to a most admiring inspection.
The Hummer’s back, well up on the neck, was of a dull green shade, the wings were dusky, and the head dusky, shading into the deep velvety brownish black of the throat. There was no lustrous sheen of the gorget in the dull light, but on each side of the median line of the throat lay an irregular patch of metallic orange. The underparts were tinged with dusky and dull rufous; and these modest vestments completed the attire of a plain-colored but very dainty bird.
Upon the passionate resumption of his courting dance we ordered an investigation, and succeeded in finding “the woman in the case.” She rose timidly from the thicket at the very lowest point of the male’s song circuit, but at sight of us quickly took to the brush again.
The fairy’s nest is commonly saddled to an obliquely descending branch of willow, alder, cottonwood, or young orchard tree. It is a tiny tuft of vegetable down, bound together and lashed to its support by a wealth of spider-webbing. Unlike the nest of colubris, the nest of alexandri is not decorated with lichens; and it not infrequently resembles some small fine sponge, not only in its yellow-brown tint, but in the elastic texture of its walls, which regain their shape after being lightly squeezed. The eggs, two in number (but sometimes three in this species alone), look like homeopathic pills—so dainty, indeed, that the owner herself must needs dart off the nest every now and then and hover at some distance to admire them. The male deserts his mate as soon as she is well established, and the entire care of the little family falls upon her shoulders. The young are fed by regurgitation, “a frightful looking act,” as Bradford Torrey says.
No. 153.
RUFOUS HUMMER.
A. O. U. No. 433. Selasphorus rufus (Gmel.).
Synonyms.—Red-backed Hummingbird. Nootka Hummer.
Description.—Adult male: In general above and below bright rufous or cinnamon-red, changing to bronzy green on crown, fading to white on belly and on chest, where sharply contrasting with gorget; wing-quills purplish-dusky on tips; the central pair of tail-feathers broadened and broadly acuminate; the succeeding pair with a deep notch on the inner web and a slighter emargination on the outer web; gorget somewhat produced laterally, of close-set rounded metallic scales, shining coppery-red, fiery red, or (varying with individuals) rich ruby-red. Bill slender and straight. Adult female: Above rufous overlaid with bronzy green, clear rufous on rump and tail-coverts; pattern of tail as in male but less decided; central tail-feathers green tipped with black; lateral feathers chiefly rufous, changing to black subterminally, and tipped with white; underparts whitish, shaded with rufous on sides; gorget wanting or represented by a small central patch. Young males: Like adult female but more extensively rufous above and throat flecked with reddish metallic scales. Young females: Like adult female but rump green and throat flecked with greenish scales. Length of adult male about 3.50 (88.9); wing 1.65 (41.91); tail 1.30 (33); bill .65 (16.5). Female: 3.70 (94); wing 1.75 (44.5); tail 1.28 (32.5); bill .68 (17.3).
Recognition Marks.—Pygmy size; abundant rufous of male distinctive; female requires careful discrimination from that of S. alleni and may be known certainly from it by notching of next central tail-feather, and by outer tail-feather more than .10 wide.
Nesting.—Nest: Of plant down and fine mosses bound together with cobwebs, and ornamented with lichens, placed on horizontal or declining stem of bush or tree. Eggs: 2, pure white, elliptical oval. Av. size, .50 × .33 (12.7 × 8.3). Season: April 15-July 10; two broods.
General Range.—Western North America from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, breeding south in mountainous regions to Arizona and north to Mount St. Elias and southwest Yukon Territory; south in winter over the tablelands of Mexico.
Range in Washington.—Common summer resident on the West-side from sea-level to timber-line; less common on the eastern slopes of the Cascades; rare in the mountains of eastern Washington.
Migrations.—Spring: March 15-April 15.
Authorities.—? Trochilus rufus, Aud. Orn. Biog. IV. 1838, 555, pl. 372. Selasphorus rufus Swains, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, p. 135. T. C&S. L¹. Rh. D¹. Sr. Kb. Ra. Kk. J. B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. BN. E.