SUBFAMILY GARRULINÆ

SUBFAMILY GARRULINÆ

CHAR. Wings short, rounded; not longer or much shorter than the tail, which is graduated, sometimes excessively so. Wings reaching not much beyond the lower tail-coverts. Bristly feathers at base of bill variable. Bill nearly as long as the head, or shorter. Tarsi longer than the bill or than the middle toe. Outer lateral claws rather shorter than the inner.

The preceding diagnosis may perhaps characterize the garruline birds, as compared with the Crows. The subdivisions of the group are as follows:—

A. Nostrils moderate, completely covered by incumbent feathers.

a. Tail much longer than the wings; first primary attenuated, falcate.

Pica. Head without crest.

b. Tail about as long as the wings; first primary not falcate.

Cyanura. Head with lengthened narrow crest. Wing and tail blue, banded with black.

Cyanocitta. Head without crest. Above blue, with a gray patch on the back. No bands on wing and tail.

Xanthoura. Head without crest. Color above greenish; the head blue; lateral tail-feathers yellow.

Perisoreus. Head full and bushy. Bill scarcely half the head, with white feathers over the nostrils. Plumage dull.

B. Nostrils very large, naked, uncovered by feathers.

Psilorhinus. Head not crested; tail broad; wings two thirds as long as the tail.

Calocitta. Head with a recurved crest; wings less than half as long as the tail.

There is a very close relationship between the Jays and the Titmice, the chief difference being in size rather than in any other distinguishing feature. The feathers at the base of the bill, however, in the Jays, are bristly throughout, with lateral branches reaching to the very tip. In Paridæ these feathers are inclined to be broader, with the shaft projecting considerably beyond the basal portion, or the lateral branches are confined to the basal portion, and extended forwards. There is no naked line of separation between the scutellæ on the outer side of the tarsi. The basal joint of the middle toe is united almost or quite to the end to the lateral, instead of half-way. The first primary is usually less than half the second, instead of rather more; the fourth and fifth primaries nearly equal and longest, instead of the fifth being longer than the fourth.

GENUS PICA, CUVIER.

Coracias, LINNÆUS, Syst. Nat. 1735 (GRAY). Pica, BRISSON, Ornithologia, 1760, and of Cuvier (AGASSIZ). (Type, Corvus pica, L.) Cleptes, GAMBEL, J. A. N. Sc. 2d Ser. I, 1847, 47.

GEN. CHAR. Tail very long, forming much more than half the total length; the feathers much graduated; the lateral scarcely more than half the middle. First primary falcate, curved, and attenuated. Bill about as high as broad at the base; the culmen and gonys much curved, and about equal; the bristly feathers reaching nearly to the middle of the bill. Nostrils nearly circular. Tarsi very long; middle toe scarcely more than two thirds the length. A patch of naked skin beneath and behind the eye.

The peculiar characteristic of this genus, in addition to the very long graduated tail, lies in the attenuated, falcate first primary. Calocitta, which has an equally long or longer tail, has the first primary as in the Jays generally (besides having the nostrils exposed).

[Line drawing: Pica hudsonica. 4547]

A specimen of P. nuttalli has the lateral tarsal plates with two or three transverse divisions on the lower third. This has not been observed by us to occur in P. hudsonica.

Species and Varieties.

P. caudata. Head, neck, breast, interscapulars, lining of wing, tail-coverts and tibiæ, deep black: wings metallic greenish-blue; tail rich metallic green, the feathers passing through bronze and reddish-violet into violet-blue, at their tips. Scapulars, abdomen, sides, flanks, and inner webs of primaries, pure white. Sexes alike; young similar.

a. Bill and bare space around the eye black.

Wing, 7.50; tail, 9.50 or less, its graduation less than half its length, 4.50; culmen, 1.20; tarsus, 1.75; middle toe, 1.05. Hab. Europe var. caudata.[55]

Wing, over 8.00 (8.50 maximum); tail over 10.00 (13.50, max., its graduation more than half its length, 7.70); culmen, 1.55; tarsus, 1.75; middle toe, 1.05. Hab. Northern and Middle North America, exclusive of the Atlantic Province of United States and California var. hudsonica.

b. Bill and bare space around the eye yellow.

Wing, 7.50; tail, 10.50; its graduation, 5.00; culmen, 1.50; tarsus, 1.75; middle toe, 1.05. Hab. California var. nuttalli.

[55] Pica caudata, FLEM. Brit. An. p. 87. Corvus pica, LINN. Faun. Suec. p. 31. Pica melanoleuca, VIEILL. N. D. XXVI, 121. Pica albiventris, VIEILL. Faun. Franc. p. 119, t. 55, f. 1. Pica european (CUV.) BOIE, Isis, 1822, 551. Pica rusticorum, LEACH, Syst. Cat. Mamm. and Birds in Brit. Mus. p. 18.

Pica caudata, var. hudsonica, BONAP.

MAGPIE.

Corvus pica, FORSTER, Phil. Trans. LXXII, 1772, 382.—WILSON, Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 75, pl. xxxv.—BON. Obs. Wils. 1825, No. 40.—IB. Syn. 1828, 57.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 219.—AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 408, pl. ccclvii (not of LINNÆUS). Corvus hudsonica, JOS. SABINE, App. Narr. Franklin’s Journey, 1823, 25, 671. Picus hudsonica, BONAP. List, 1838.—IB. Conspectus, 1850, 383.—MAXIM. Reise Nord Amer. I, 1839, 508.—IB. Cabanis, Journ. 1856, 197.—NEWBERRY, Zoöl. Cal. & Or. Route, Rep. P. R. R. VI, IV, 1857, 84.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 576, pl. xxv.—LORD, Pr. R. A. Inst. IV, 121 (British Columbia).—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 213, pl. xxv.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Chic. Ac. I, 1869, 286 (Alaska).—FINSCH, Abh. Nat. III, 1872, 39 (Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 296. Cleptes hudsonicus, GAMBEL, J. A. N. Sc. 2d Ser. I, Dec. 1847, 47. Pica melanoleuca, “VIEILL.” AUD. Syn. 1839, 157.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 99, pl. ccxxvii.

SP. CHAR. Bill and naked skin behind the eye black. General color black. The belly, scapulars, and inner webs of the primaries white; hind part of back grayish; exposed portion of the tail-feathers glossy green, tinged with purple and violet near the end; wings glossed with green; the secondaries and tertials with blue; throat-feathers spotted with white in younger specimens. Length, 19.00; wing, 8.50; tail, 13.00. Young in color and appearance similar generally to the adult.

HAB. The northern regions of North America. The middle and western Provinces of the United States exclusive of California; Wisconsin, Michigan, and Northern Illinois, in winter.

The American Magpie is almost exactly similar to the European, and differs only in larger size and disproportionably longer tail. According to Maximilian and other authors, the iris of the American bird has a grayish-blue outer ring, wanting in the European bird, and the voice is quite different. It is, however, difficult to consider the two birds otherwise than as geographical races of one primitive stock.

HABITS. The American Magpie has an extended western distribution from Arizona on the south to Alaska on the northwest. It has been met with as far to the east as the Missouri River, and is found from there to the Pacific. It is abundant at Sitka; it was observed at Ounga, one of the Shumagin Islands, and was obtained by Bischoff at Kodiak.

Richardson observed these birds on the Saskatchewan, where a few remain even in winter, but are much more frequent in summer.

Mr. Lord, the naturalist of the British branch of the Northwest Boundary Survey, characterizes our Magpie as murderous, because of its cruel persecution of galled and suffering mules, its picking out the eyes of living animals, and its destruction of birds. These birds caused so much trouble to the party, in winter, at Colville, as to become utterly unbearable, and a large number were destroyed by strychnine. They were then so tame and impudent that he repeatedly gave them food from his hand without their showing any evidence of fear. He says they nest in March.

Dr. Suckley states that this Magpie is abundant throughout the central region of Oregon and Washington Territory. He first met with it a hundred miles west of Fort Union, at the mouth of the Yellowstone. It became more abundant as the mountains were approached, and so continued almost as far west as the Cascade Mountains, where the dense forests were an effectual barrier. On Puget Sound he saw none until August, after which, during the fall, it was tolerably abundant. It breeds throughout the interior. He obtained a young bird, nearly fledged, about May 5, at Fort Dalles. At this place a few birds remain throughout the winter, but a majority retire farther south during the cold weather. One of its cries, he says, resembles a peculiar call of Steller’s Jay.

Mr. Ridgway regards this Magpie as one of the most characteristic and conspicuous birds of the interior region, distinguished both for the elegance of its form and the beauty of its plumage. While not at all rare in the fertile mountain cañons, the principal resort of this species is the rich bottom-land of the rivers. The usual note of the Magpie is a frequently uttered chatter, very peculiar, and, when once heard, easily recognized. During the nesting-season it utters a softer and more musical and plaintive note, sounding something like kay´-e-ehk-kay-e. It generally flies about in small flocks, and, like others of its family, is very fond of tormenting owls. In the winter, in company with the Ravens, it resorts to the slaughter-houses to feed on offal. The young differ but little in plumage from the adult, the metallic colors being even a little more vivid; the white spotting of the throat is characteristic of the immature bird.

The nests were found by Mr. Ridgway in various situations. Some were in cedars, some in willows, and others in low shrubs. In every instance the nest was domed, the inner and real nest being enclosed in an immense thorny covering, which far exceeded it in bulk. In the side of this thorny protection is a winding passage leading into the nest, possibly designed to conceal the very long tail of the bird, which, if exposed to view, would endanger its safety.

Dr. Cooper first met this bird east of the Cascade Mountains, near the Yakima, and from there in his journey northward as far as the 49th degree it was common, as well as in all the open unwooded regions until the mountains were passed on his return westward.

Dr. Kennerly met with these birds on the Little Colorado in New Mexico, in December. He found them in great numbers soon after leaving the Rio Grande, and from time to time on the march to California. They seemed to live indifferently in the deep cañons among the hills or in the valleys, but were only found near water.

Dr. Newberry first met with these birds on the banks of one of the tributaries of the Des Chutes, one hundred miles south of the Columbia, afterwards on the Columbia, but nowhere in large numbers. He regards them as much less gregarious in their habits than Pica nuttalli, as all the birds he noticed were solitary or in pairs, while the Yellow-bills were often seen in flocks of several hundreds.

All accounts of this bird agree in representing it as frequently a great source of annoyance to parties of exploration, especially in its attacks upon horses worn down and galled by fatigue and privations. In the memorable narrative of Colonel Pike’s journey in New Mexico, these birds, rendered bold and voracious by want, are described as assembling around that miserable party in great numbers, picking the sore backs of their perishing horses, and snatching at all the food they could reach. The party of Lewis and Clark, who were the first to add this bird to our fauna, also describe them as familiar and voracious, penetrating into their tents, snatching the meat even from their dishes, and frequently, when the hunters were engaged in dressing their game, seizing the meat suspended within a foot or two of their heads.

Mr. Nuttall, in his tour across the continent, found these birds so familiar and greedy as to be easily taken, as they approached the encampment for food, by the Indian boys, who kept them prisoners. They soon became reconciled to their confinement, and were continually hopping around and tugging and struggling for any offal thrown to them.

Observers have reported this bird from different parts of Arizona and New Mexico; but Dr. Coues writes me that he never saw it at Fort Whipple, or elsewhere in the first-named Territory. He found it breeding, however, in the Raton Mountains, in June, under the following circumstances, recorded at the time in his journal.

“Yesterday, the 8th, we were rolling over smooth prairie, ascending a little the while, but so gradually that only the change in the flora indicated the difference in elevation. The flowery verdure was passed, scrubby junipers came thicker and faster, and pine-clad mountain-tops took shape before us. We made the pass to-day, rounding along a picturesque ravine, and the noon halt gave me a chance to see something of the birds. Troops of beautiful Swallows were on wing, and as their backs turned in their wayward flight, the violet-green colors betrayed the species. A colony of them were breeding on the face of a cliff, apparently like H. lunifrons, but the nests were not accessible. Whilst I was watching their movements, a harsh scream attracted my attention, and the next moment a beautiful Magpie flew swiftly past with quivering wings, and with a flirt of the glittering tail and a curious evolution dashed into a dense thicket close by. In the hope of seeing him again, and perhaps of finding his nest, I hurried to the spot where he had disappeared, and pushed into the underbrush. In a few moments I stood in a little open space, surrounded on all sides and covered above with a network of vines interlacing the twigs and foliage so closely that the sun’s rays hardly struggled through. A pretty shady bower! and there, sure enough, was the nest, not likely to be overlooked, for it was as big as a bushel basket,—a globular mass, hung in the top of one of the taller saplings, about twelve feet from the ground. The mother bird was at home, and my bustling approach alarmed her; she flew out of the nest with loud cries of distress, which brought the male to her side in an instant. As I scrambled up the slender trunk, which swayed with my weight, both birds kept flying about my head with redoubled outcry, alighting for an instant, then dashing past again so close that I thought they would peck at me. As I had no means of preserving the nest, I would not take it down, and contented myself with such observations as I could make whilst bestriding a limb altogether too slender for comfort. It was nearly spherical in shape, seemed to be about eighteen inches in diameter, arched over, with a small hole on one side. The walls, composed entirely of interlaced twigs bristling outwardly in every direction, were extremely thick, the space inside being much less than one would expect, and seemingly hardly enough to accommodate the bird’s long tail, which I suppose must be held upright. The nest was lined with a little coarse dried grass, and contained six young ones nearly ready to fly. Authors state that the American Magpie lays only two eggs; but I suppose that this particular pair lived too far from scientific centres to find out what was expected of them. Other birds, noticed to-day, were Steller’s Jays among the pines and cedars, a flock of Chrysomitris, apparently pinus, feeding on willow-buds along the rivulet that threaded the gorge, and some Robins.”

The eggs of this Magpie are somewhat larger than any I have seen of P. nuttalli, and are differently marked and colored. Six specimens from the Sierra Nevada exhibit the following measurements: 1.40 × 0.98, 1.22 × 1.00, 1.41 × 0.95, 1.28 × 0.95, 1.26 × 0.92, 1.32 × 0.96. Their ground-color is a grayish-white, or light gray with a yellowish tinge, spotted with blotches, dottings, and dashes of a purplish or violet brown. In some they are sparsely distributed, showing plainly the ground, more confluent at the larger end. In others they are finer, more generally and more thickly distributed. In others they are much larger and of deeper color, and cover the whole of the larger end with one large cloud of confluent markings. None of these closely resembles the eggs of P. nuttalli. The usual number of eggs in a nest, according to Mr. Ridgway, varies from six to nine, although it is said that ten are sometimes found.

Pica caudata, var. nuttalli, AUD.

YELLOW-BILLED MAGPIE.

Pica nuttalli, AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 450, pl. ccclxii.—IB. Syn. 1839, 152.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 104, pl. ccxxviii.—BON. List, 1838.—IB. Conspectus, 1850, 383.—NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 236.—NEWBERRY, Rep. P. R. R. VI, IV, 1857, 84.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 578, pl. xxvi.—HEERM. X, S, 54.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 295. Cleptes nuttalli, GAMBEL, J. A. N. Sc. Ph. 2d Series, I, 1847, 46.

SP. CHAR. Bill, and naked skin behind the eye, bright yellow; otherwise similar to P. hudsonica. Length, 17.00; wing, 8.00; tail. 10.00.

HAB. California (Sacramento Valley, and southern coast region).

We cannot look upon the Yellow-billed Magpie otherwise than as a local race of the common kind, since it is well known that among the Jays many species have the bill either black or yellow according to sex, age, or locality; and as the Yellow-billed Magpie occupies a more southern locality than usual, and one very different from that of the black-billed species, it well may exhibit a special geographical variation. The great restriction in range is another argument in favor of its being a simple variety.

HABITS. The Yellow-billed Magpie seems to be exclusively a bird of California, where it is very abundant, and where it replaces almost entirely the more eastern form. Mr. Ridgway, who met with this variety only in the valley of the Sacramento, states that he there found it very abundant among the oaks of that region. It differed from the common Magpie in being exceedingly gregarious, moving about among the oak groves in small companies, incessantly chattering as it flew, or as it sat among the branches of the trees. He saw many of their nests in the tops of the oaks,—indeed, all were so situated,—yet he never met with the nests of the other species in a high tree, not even in the river valleys. The young of this Magpie have the white of the scapulars marked with rusty triangular spots.

Dr. Cooper found this Magpie abundant in the valleys of California, especially near the middle of the State, except during the spring months, when none were seen in the Santa Clara Valley, the supposition being that they had retired eastward to the mountains to build their nests. At Santa Barbara he found them numerous in April and May, and saw their nests in oak-trees. The young were already fledged by the 25th of April. The nest, he states, is composed of a large mass of coarse twigs twisted together in a spherical form, with a hole in the side. The eggs he saw resembled those of the other species, and are described as being whitish-green, spotted with cinereous-gray and olive-brown. They also breed abundantly about Monterey. They have not been traced to the northern border of the State.

Their food, Dr. Cooper adds, consists of almost everything animal and vegetable that they can find, and they come about farms and gardens to pick up whatever they can meet with. They have a loud call that sounds like pait-pait, with a variety of chattering notes, in tone resembling the human voice, which, indeed, they can be taught to imitate.

An egg of this species from Monterey, California, is of a rounded oval shape, a little less obtuse at one end than the other. The ground-color is a light drab, so closely marked with fine cloudings of an obscure lavender color as nearly to conceal the ground, and to give the egg the appearance of an almost uniform violet-brown. It measures 1.20 inches in length by .90 in breadth.

GENUS CYANURA, SWAINSON.

Cyanurus, SWAINSON, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 495, Appendix. (Type, Corvus cristatus, LINN.) Cyanocitta, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851 (not of STRICKLAND, 1845).

GEN. CHAR. Head crested. Wings and tail blue, with transverse black bars; head and back of the same color. Bill rather slender, somewhat broader than high at the base; culmen about equal to the head. Nostrils large, nearly circular, concealed by bristles. Tail about as long as the wings, lengthened, graduated. Hind claw large, longer than its digit.

[Line drawing: Cyanura cristata. 1423]

Species and Varieties.

COMMON CHARACTERS. Wings and tail deep blue, the latter, with the secondaries and tertials, sometimes also the greater coverts, barred with black.

A. Greater coverts, tertials, secondaries, and tail-feathers tipped broadly with white; lower parts generally, including lateral and under parts of head, whitish.

C. cristata. Head above, back, scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, rump and upper tail-coverts, light ashy purplish-blue; a narrow frontal band, a loral spot, streak behind the eye, and collar round the neck, commencing under the crest, passing down across the end of the auriculars and expanding into a crescent across the jugulum, black; throat tinged with purplish-gray, the breast and sides with smoky-gray; abdomen, anal region, and crissum pure white. Wing, 5.70; tail, 6.00; bill, 1.25; tarsus, 1.35; middle toe, .85; crest, 2.20. Hab. Eastern Province of North America.

B. No white on wing or tail; lower parts deep blue.

C. stelleri. Color deep blue, less intense than on wings and tail, except dorsal region, which may be deep blue, ashy-brown, or sooty-black. Head and neck dark grayish-brown, dusky-blue, or deep black, the throat more grayish.

a. No white patch over the eye; throat and chin not abruptly lighter than adjacent parts; secondary coverts not barred with black.

Whole head, neck, jugulum, and dorsal region plain sooty-black; no blue streaks on forehead, or else these only faintly indicated. The blue everywhere of a uniform dull greenish-indigo shade. Depth of bill, .45; crest, 2.60; wing, 6.00; tail, 6.00; culmen, 1.35; tarsus, 1.75; middle toe, 1.00. Hab. Northwest coast, from Sitka to the Columbia var. stelleri.

Whole head, neck, jugulum, and dorsal region plumbeous-umber; the forehead conspicuously streaked with blue, and the crest washed with the same. The blue of two very different shades, the wings and tail being deep indigo, the body and tail-coverts greenish cobalt-blue. Depth of bill, .35; crest, 2.80; wing, 6.00; tail, 6.00; culmen, 1.25; tarsus, 1.55; middle toe, .90. Hab. Sierra Nevada, from Fort Crook to Fort Tejon var. frontalis.

b. A patch of silky white over the eye; throat and chin abruptly lighter than the adjoining parts; secondary coverts barred distinctly with black.

Whole crest, cheeks, and foreneck deep black; the crest scarcely tinged with blue; dorsal region light ashy-plumbeous; forehead conspicuously streaked with milk-white. The blue contrasted as in var. frontalis. Depth of bill, .35; crest, 3.00; wing, 6.10; tail, 6.10; culmen, 1.25; tarsus, 1.65; middle toe, .90. Hab. Rocky Mountains of United States var. macrolopha.

Whole crest, cheeks, and foreneck deep black, the crest strongly tinged with blue; dorsal region greenish plumbeous-blue. The blue nearly uniform; forehead conspicuously streaked with bluish-white. Depth of bill, .35; crest, 2.80; wing, 5.90; tail, 5.90; culmen, 1.30; tarsus, 1.60; middle toe, .90. Hab. Highlands of Mexico var. diademata.[56]

Whole crest, cheeks, and foreneck deep blue, lores black; dorsal region deep purplish-blue; forehead conspicuously streaked with light blue. The blue of a uniform shade—deep purplish-indigo—throughout. Depth of bill, .40; length of crest, 2.50; wing, 5.80; tail, 5.80; culmen, 1.30; tarsus, 1.60; middle toe, .95. Hab. Southeastern Mexico (Xalapa, Belize, etc.) var. coronata.[57]

The different varieties just indicated under Cyanura stelleri, namely, stelleri, frontalis, macrolopha, diademata, and coronata, all appear to represent well-marked and easily defined races of one primitive species, the gradation from one form to the other being very regular, and agreeing with the general variation attendant upon geographical distribution. Thus, beginning with C. stelleri, we have the anterior part of head and body, including interscapular region, black, without any markings on the head. In frontalis the back is lighter, and a glossy blue shows on the forehead. In macrolopha the blue of posterior parts invades the anterior, tingeing them very decidedly, leaving the head black, with a blue shade to the crest; the forehead is glossed with bluish-white; the upper eyelids have a white spot. In coronata the blue tinge is deeper, and pervades the entire body, except the side of the head. The shade of blue is different from macrolopha, and more like that of stelleri; diademata, intermediate in habitat between macrolopha and coronata, is also intermediate in colors. The tail becomes rather more even, and the bill more slender, as we proceed from stelleri to coronata. The bars on the secondary coverts become darker in the same progression.

[56] Cyanura diademata (BONAP.), Cyanogarrulus diadematus, BONAP. Consp. p. 377. Cyanocitta diad., SCLATER, Catal. Am. B. 1862, 143. The C. galeata, CAB., from Bogota, we have not seen.

[57] Cyanura coronata, SWAINS. Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 437.

Cyanura cristata, SWAINSON.

BLUE JAY.

Corvus cristatus, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, (10th ed.,) 1758, 106; (12th ed.,) 1766, 157.—GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 369.—WILSON, Am. Orn. I, 1808, 2, pl. i, f. 1.—BON. Obs. Wilson, 1824, No. 41.—DOUGHTY, Cab. N. H. II, 1832, 62, pl. vi.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 11; V, 1839, 475, pl. cii. Garrulus cristatus, “VIEILLOT, Encyclop. 890.”—IB. Dict. XI, 477.—BON. Syn. 1828, 58.—SW. F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 293.—VIEILLOT, Galerie, I, 1824, 160, pl. cii.—AUD. Birds Am. IV, 110, pl. ccxxxi.—MAX. Caban. J. 1858, VI, 192. Pica cristata, WAGLER, Syst. Av. 1827, Pica, No. 8. Cyanurus cristatus, SWAINSON, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, App. 495.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 580.—SAMUELS, 364.—ALLEN, B. E. Fla. 297. _Cyanocorax cristatus_, BON. List, 1838. Cyanocitta cristata, STRICKLAND, Ann. Mag. N. H. 1845, 261.—CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851, 221. Cyanogarrulus cristatus, BON. Consp. 1850, 376.

SP. CHAR. Crest about one third longer than the bill. Tail much graduated. General color above light purplish-blue; wings and tail-feathers ultramarine-blue; the secondaries and tertials, the greater wing-coverts, and the exposed surface of the tail, sharply banded with black and broadly tipped with white, except on the central tail-feathers. Beneath white; tinged with purplish-blue on the throat, and with bluish-brown on the sides. A black crescent on the forepart of the breast, the horns passing forward and connecting with a half-collar on the back of the neck. A narrow frontal line and loral region black; feathers on the base of the bill blue, like the crown. Female rather duller in color, and a little smaller. Length, 12.25; wing, 5.65; tail, 5.75.

HAB. Eastern North America, west to the Missouri. Northeastern Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 494). North to Red River and Moose Factory.

Specimens from north of the United States are larger than more southern ones. A series of specimens from Florida, brought by Mr. Boardman, are quite peculiar in some respects, and probably represent a local race resident there. In these Florida specimens the wing and tail are each an inch or more shorter than in Pennsylvania examples, while the bill is not any smaller. The crest is very short; the white spaces on secondaries and tail-feathers more restricted.

HABITS. The common Blue Jay of North America is found throughout the continent, from the Atlantic coast to the Missouri Valley, and from Florida and Texas to the fur regions nearly or quite to the 56th parallel. It was found breeding near Lake Winnepeg by Donald Gunn. It was also observed in these regions by Sir John Richardson. It was met with by Captain Blakiston on the forks of the Saskatchewan, but not farther west.

The entire family to which this Jay belongs, and of which it is a very conspicuous member, is nearly cosmopolitan as to distribution, and is distinguished by the remarkable intelligence of all its members. Its habits are striking, peculiar, and full of interest, often evincing sagacity, forethought, and intelligence strongly akin to reason. These traits belong not exclusively to any one species or generic subdivision, but are common to the whole family.

When first met with in the wild and unexplored regions of our country, the Jay appears shy and suspicious of the intruder, man. Yet, curious to a remarkable degree, he follows the stranger, watches all his movements, hovers with great pertinacity about his steps, ever keeping at a respectful distance, even before he has been taught to beware of the deadly gun. Afterwards, as he becomes better acquainted with man, the Jay conforms his own conduct to the treatment he receives. Where he is hunted in wanton sport, because of brilliant plumage, or persecuted because of unjust prejudices and a bad reputation not deserved, he is shy and wary, shuns, as much as possible, human society, and, when the hunter intrudes into his retreat, seems to delight to follow and annoy him, and to give the alarm to all dwellers of the woods that their foe is approaching.

In parts of the country, as in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and other Western States, where the Jay is unmolested and exempt from persecution, we find him as familiar and confiding as any of the favored birds of the Eastern States. In the groves of Iowa Mr. Allen found our Blue Jay nearly as unsuspicious as a Black-capped Titmouse. In Illinois he speaks of them as very abundant and half domestic. And again, in Indiana, in one of the principal streets of Richmond, the same gentleman found the nest of these birds in a lilac-bush, under the window of a dwelling. In the summer of 1843 I saw a nest of the Jay, filled with young, in a tree standing near the house of Mr. Audubon, in the city of New York. The habits of no two species can well be more unlike than are those which persecution on the one hand and kind treatment on the other have developed in this bird.

The Blue Jay, wherever found, is more or less resident. This is especially the case in the more southern portions of its area of reproduction. In Texas, Dr. Lincecum informs us, this Jay remains both summer and winter. It is there said to build its nest of mud, a material rarely if ever used in more northern localities; and when placed not far from dwelling-houses, it is lined with cotton thread, rags of calico, and the like. They are, he writes, very intelligent and sensible birds, subsisting on insects, acorns, etc. He has occasionally known them to destroy bats. In Texas they seem to seek the protection of man, and to nest near dwellings as a means of safety against Hawks. They nest but once a year, and lay but four eggs. In a female dissected by him, he detected one hundred and twelve ova, and from these data he infers that the natural life of a Jay is about thirty years.

Mr. Allen mentions finding the Blue Jay in Kansas equally at home, and as vivacious and even more gayly colored than at the North. While it seemed to have forgotten none of the droll notes and fantastic ways always to be expected from it, there was added to its manners that familiarity which characterizes it in the more newly settled portions of the country, occasionally surprising one with some new expression of feeling or sentiment, or some unexpected eccentricity in its varied notes, perhaps developed by the more southern surroundings.

The Blue Jay is arboreal in its habits. It prefers the shelter and security of thick covers to more open ground. It is omnivorous, eating either animal or vegetable food, though with an apparent preference for the former, feeding upon insects, their eggs and larvæ, and worms, wherever procurable. It also lays up large stores of acorns and beech mast for food in winter, when insects cannot be procured in sufficient abundance. Even at this season it hunts for and devours in large quantities the eggs of the destructive tent caterpillar.

The Jay is charged with a propensity to destroy the eggs and young of the smaller birds, and has even been accused of killing full-grown birds. I am not able to verify these charges, but they seem to be too generally conceded to be disputed. These are the only serious grounds of complaint that can be brought against it, and are more than outweighed, tenfold, by the immense services it renders to man in the destruction of his enemies. Its depredations on the garden or the farm are too trivial to be mentioned.

The Blue Jay is conspicuous as a musician. He exhibits a variety in his notes, and occasionally a beauty and a harmony in his song, for which few give him due credit. Wilson compares his position among our singing birds to that of the trumpeter in the band. His notes he varies to an almost infinite extent, at one time screaming with all his might, at another warbling with all the softness of tone and moderation of the Bluebird, and again imparting to his voice a grating harshness that is indescribable.

The power of mimicry possessed by the Jay, though different from, is hardly surpassed by that of the Mocking-Bird. It especially delights to imitate the cries of the Sparrow Hawk, and at other times those of the Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks are given with such similarity that the small birds fly to a covert, and the inmates of the poultry-yard are in the greatest alarm. Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, of Cleveland, on whose grounds a large colony of Jays took up their abode and became very familiar, has given me a very interesting account of their habits. The following is an extract: “They soon became so familiar as to feed about our yards and corn-cribs. At the dawn of every pleasant day throughout the year, the nesting-season excepted, a stranger in my house might well suppose that all the axles in the country were screeching aloud for lubrication, hearing the harsh and discordant utterances of these birds. During the day the poultry might be frequently seen running into their hiding-places, and the gobbler with his upturned eye searching the heavens for the enemy, all excited and alarmed by the mimic utterances of the adapt ventriloquists, the Jays, simulating the cries of the Red-shouldered and the Red-tailed Hawks. The domestic circle of the barn-yard evidently never gained any insight into the deception by experience; for, though the trick was repeated every few hours, the excitement would always be re-enacted.”

When reared from the nest, these birds become very tame, and are perfectly reconciled to confinement. They very soon grow into amusing pets, learning to imitate the human voice, and to simulate almost every sound that they hear. Wilson gives an account of one that had been brought up in a family of a gentleman in South Carolina that displayed great intelligence, and had all the loquacity of a parrot. This bird could utter several words with great distinctness, and, whenever called, would immediately answer to its name with great sociability.

The late Dr. Esteep, of Canton, Ohio, an experienced bird-fancier, assured Dr. Kirtland that he has invariably found the Blue Jay more ingenious, cunning, and teachable than any other species of bird he has ever attempted to instruct.

Dr. Kirtland has also informed me of the almost invaluable services rendered to the farmers in his neighborhood, by the Blue Jays, in the destruction of caterpillars. When he first settled on his farm, he found every apple and wild-cherry tree in the vicinity extensively disfigured and denuded of its leaves by the larvæ of the Clisiocampa americana, or the tent caterpillar. The evil was so extensive that even the best farmers despaired of counteracting it. Not long after the Jays colonized upon his place he found they were feeding their young quite extensively with these larvæ, and so thoroughly that two or three years afterwards not a worm was to be seen in that neighborhood; and more recently he has searched for it in vain, in order to rear cabinet specimens of the moth.

The Jay builds a strong coarse nest in the branch of some forest or orchard tree, or even in a low bush. It is formed of twigs rudely but strongly interwoven, and is lined with dark fibrous roots. The eggs are usually five, and rarely six in number.

The eggs of this species are usually of a rounded-oval shape, obtuse, and of very equal size at either end. Their ground-color is a brownish-olive, varying in depth, and occasionally an olive-drab. They are sparingly spotted with darker olive-brown. In size they vary from 1.05 to 1.20 inches in length, and in breadth from .82 to .88 of an inch. Their average size is about 1.15 by .86 of an inch.

Cyanura stelleri, SWAINSON.

STELLER’S JAY.

Corvus stelleri, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 370.—LATH. Ind. Orn. I, 1790, 158.—PALLAS, Zoog. Rosso-As. I, 1811, 393.—BONAP. Zoöl. Jour. III, 1827, 49.—IB. Suppl. Syn. 1828, 433.—AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 453, pl. ccclxii. Garrulus stelleri, VIEILLOT, Dict. XII, 1817, 481.—BONAP. Am. Orn. II, 1828, 44, pl. xiii.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 229.—AUD. Syn. 1839, 154.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 107, pl. ccxxx (not of SWAINSON, F. Bor.-Am.?). Cyanurus stelleri, SWAINSON, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 495, App. Pica stelleri, WAGLER, Syst. Av. 1827, Pica, No. 10. Cyanocorax stelleri, BON. List, 1838. FINSCH, Abh. Nat. III, 1872, 40 (Alaska). Cyanocitta stelleri, CAB. Mus. Hein. 1851, 221. NEWBERRY, P. R. R. Rep. VI, IV, 1857, 85. Cyanogarrulus stelleri, BONAP. Conspectus, 1850, 377. Steller’s Crow, PENNANT, Arctic Zoöl. II, Sp. 139. LATH. Syn. I, 387. Cyanura s. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 581 (in part). LORD, Pr. R. A. Inst. IV, 122 (British Columbia; nest).—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Chic. Ac. I, 1869, 486 (Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 298 (in part).

SP. CHAR. Crest about one third longer than the bill. Fifth quill longest; second about equal to the secondary quills. Tail graduated; lateral feathers about .70 of an inch shortest. Head and neck all round, and forepart of breast, dark brownish-black. Back and lesser wing-coverts blackish-brown, the scapulars glossed with blue. Under parts, rump, tail-coverts, and wings greenish-blue; exposed surfaces of lesser quills dark indigo-blue; tertials and ends of tail-feathers rather obsoletely banded with black. Feathers of the forehead streaked with greenish-blue. Length, about 13.00; wing, 5.85; tail, 5.85; tarsus, 1.75 (1,921).

HAB. Pacific coast of North America, from the Columbia River to Sitka; east to St. Mary’s Mission, Rocky Mountains.

HABITS. Dr. Suckley regarded Steller’s Jay as probably the most abundant bird of its size in all the wooded country between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific. He describes it as tame, loquacious, and possessed of the most impudent curiosity. It is a hardy, tough bird, and a constant winter resident of Washington Territory. It is remarkable for its varied cries and notes, and seems to have one for every emotion or pursuit in which it is engaged. It also has a great fondness for imitating the notes of other birds. Dr. Suckley states that frequently when pleasantly excited by the hope of obtaining a rare bird, in consequence of hearing an unknown note issuing from some clump of bushes or thicket, he has been not a little disappointed by finding that it had issued from this Jay. It mimics accurately the principal cry of the Catbird.

Dr. Cooper also found it very common in all the forests on both sides of the Cascade Mountains. While it seemed to depend chiefly upon the forest for its food, in the winter it would make visits to the vicinity of houses, and steal anything eatable it could find within its reach, even potatoes. In these forages upon the gardens and farm-yards, they are both silent and watchful, evidently conscious of the peril of their undertaking, and when discovered they instantly fly off to the concealment of the forests. They also make visits to the Indian lodges when the owners are absent, and force their way into them if possible, one of their number keeping watch. In the forest they do not appear to be shy or timid, but boldly follow those who intrude upon their domain, screaming, and calling their companions around them. Hazel-nuts are one of their great articles of winter food; and Dr. Cooper states that, in order to break the shell, the Jay resorts to the ingenious expedient of taking them to a branch of a tree, fixing them in a crotch or cavity, and hammering them with its bill until it can reach the meat within. Their nest he describes as large, loosely built of sticks, and placed in a bush or low tree.

At certain seasons of the year its food consisted almost entirely of the seeds of the pine, particularly of P. brachyptera, which Dr. Newberry states he has often seen them extracting from the cones, and with which the stomachs of those he killed were usually filled. He found these birds ranging as far north as the line of the British Territory, and from the coast to the Rocky Mountains.

In his Western journey Mr. Nuttall met with these birds in the Blue Mountains of the Oregon, east of Walla-walla. There he found them scarce and shy. Afterwards he found them abundant in the pine forests of the Columbia, where their loud trumpeting clangor was heard at all hours of the day, calling out with a loud voice, djay-djay, or chattering with a variety of other notes, some of them similar to those of the common Blue Jay. They are more bold and familiar than our Jay. Watchful as a dog, no sooner does a stranger show himself in their vicinity than they neglect all other employment to come round him, following and sometimes scolding at him with great pertinacity and signs of irritability. At other times, stimulated by curiosity, they follow for a while in perfect silence, until something seems to arouse their ire, and then their vociferous cries are poured out with unceasing volubility till the intruder has passed from their view.

In the month of May, Mr. Nuttall found a nest of these birds in a small sapling of the Douglas fir, on the borders of a dense forest, and, some time after, a second nest with young, in an elevated branch of another fir, on the border of a rocky cliff. The first nest contained four eggs, of a pale green, marked with small olive-brown spots, varied with others inclining to a violet hue. The parents flew at him with the utmost anger and agitation, almost deafening him with their cries; and although he took only two of their eggs, the next day he found they had forsaken their nest. This nest was bulky, made of interlaced twigs and roots, with a stout layer of mud, and lined with black rootlets. One of the eggs taken by Mr. Nuttall is in my cabinet, and is as he describes it, except that the obscure markings of violet have nearly faded out. It measures 1.20 inches in length, and .90 in breadth, is oval in shape, and a little more obtuse at one end than at the other.

This Jay was obtained by Steller at Nootka, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, in latitude 50°. It was also found in abundance by Mr. Dall at Sitka, in British Columbia, where a number of specimens were obtained by Mr. Bischoff and by Mr. Elliot.

Mr. J. K. Lord states that this Jay ever makes its presence known by the constant utterance of discordant screams. It is continually hopping from bough to bough, darting down to catch an insect, performing short, erratic flights, and jerking up and down its crest of bright feathers. Its noisy song seems to be everywhere. It is the embodiment of restlessness, and, by dint of sheer impudence, attracts attention even from the hunter. He adds that it seemed fond of frequenting the haunts of man, and is always plentiful near Indian lodges or white men’s shanties. It is by no means epicurean in taste, but readily devours anything, whether seeds or salmon, grasshoppers or venison. Its nest he found artfully concealed amidst the thick foliage of a young pine-tree. It was composed of moss, small twigs, lichens, and fir fronds, and lined with deer’s hair. The average number of eggs laid appears to be seven.

Cyanura stelleri, var. frontalis, RIDGWAY.

SIERRA JAY.

Cyanura stelleri, AUCT. All reference to Steller’s Jay as occurring in California, excepting on the northern Coast Range, relate to this variety.

SP. CHAR. Head, neck, and dorsal region plumbeous-umber, darker on the head, and posteriorly changing gradually into the light greenish-blue of the rest of the body; wings and tail deep indigo-blue, the tertials, secondaries, and tail conspicuously marked with broad and rather distant bars of black; primaries greenish light-blue, like the rump, abdomen, etc. Whole forehead conspicuously streaked with blue (the streaks forming two parallel series, where the feathers are not disarranged), and the crest strongly tinged with blue. ♂ (53,639, Carson City, Nevada, April 30, 1868): wing, 6.00; tail, 6.00; culmen, 1.25; depth of bill, .35; tarsus, 1.55; middle toe, .90; crest, 2.80. ♀ (53,640, Carson City, Nevada, April 30, 1868): wing, 5.70; tail, 5.50. Young with the blue of the body and head entirely replaced by a sooty grayish; and that of the wings and tail duller, and less distinctly barred.

HAB. Whole length of the Sierra Nevada, from Fort Crook (where it approaches var. stelleri) to Fort Tejon.

In the colors of the body, wings, and tail, this well-marked race resembles C. macrolopha in every respect, except that the greater coverts are not barred with black; there being the same abrupt contrast between the deep blue of the wings and tail, and the light greenish-blue of the body, tail-coverts, and primaries,—seen only in these two forms. The variety is confined to the mountains of California and Western Nevada, extending along the Sierra Nevada about the entire length of the State, there being specimens in the collection from Fort Crook and Fort Tejon, and intermediate localities.

HABITS. The Blue-fronted Jay, so far as it was observed by Mr. Ridgway, was found to be exclusively an inhabitant of the pine woods of the Sierra Nevada, and is, with Clarke’s Nutcracker, one of the most characteristic birds of that region. In its general habits and manners, it greatly resembles the eastern Blue Jay, but is rather more shy, while its notes are very different, and do not possess the variety and flexibility of the cristata, but are in comparison harsh and discordant. The usual note is a hoarse, deep-toned monosyllabic squawk. Sometimes it utters a hollow sonorous chatter.

Near Carson City one of these birds had been winged by a shot, and, in falling, alighted on the lower branches of a pine-tree. Upon an attempt to capture it, the bird began to ascend the tree limb by limb, at the same time uttering a perfect imitation of the cry of the Red-tailed Hawk, evidently in the hope of frightening away his tormentors. Dr. Newberry regards this Jay as the western counterpart of the C. cristata. By its more conspicuous crest, its bold, defiant air, and its excessively harsh and disagreeable cry, it challenges and secures attention. He found it almost exclusively confined to the hilly and mountainous districts, choosing in preference those covered with pines.

Dr. Heermann found these Jays abundant and resident as far south as Warner’s Ranch, where, though common, they were for some reason so unusually wild and vigilant as not to be easily procurable. In feeding, he observed that they seemed always to begin in the lower branches and ascend, hopping from twig to twig, to the topmost point, and, while thus employed, utter a harsh screaming note that can be heard to a considerable distance.

This species, Dr. Cooper states, is numerous in the mountains of California, inhabiting the whole length of the Sierra Nevada, and the Coast Range as far south, at least, as Santa Cruz. Though showing a decided preference for the pine forests, they sometimes in winter frequent those of oaks. They are omnivorous, eating seeds, acorns, nuts, insects, and in winter even potatoes and dead fish. They are at times bold and prying, and at others very cautious and suspicious. They soon learn to appreciate a gun, and show great sagacity in their movements to avoid its peril. On the Columbia they lay in May, and in California about a month earlier.

Cyanura stelleri, var. macrolopha, BAIRD.

LONG-CRESTED JAY.

Cyanocitta macrolopha, BAIRD, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phila. VII, June, 1854, 118 (Albuquerque). ? Garrulus stelleri, SWAINSON, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 294, pl. liv (head-waters of Columbia; figure of a bird intermediate between C. stelleri and macrolopha). Cyanura macrolopha, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 582.—ELLIOT, Illust. Am. B, I, xvii.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 300.

SP. CHAR. Crest nearly twice the length of the bill. Tail moderately graduated; the lateral feathers about .60 of an inch shorter than the middle. Fourth and fifth quills longest; second shorter than the secondaries. Head all round, throat, and forepart of the breast, black, the crest with a gloss of blue; rest of back dark ashy-brown with a gloss of greenish. Under parts, rump, tail-coverts, and outer surfaces of primaries, greenish-blue; greater coverts, secondaries, and tertials, and upper surface of tail-feathers bright blue, banded with black; forehead streaked with opaque white, passing behind into pale blue; a white patch over the eye. Chin grayish. Length, 12.50; wing, 5.85; tail, 5.85; tarsus, 1.70 (8,351).

HAB. Central line of Rocky Mountains from northern border of the United States to table-lands of Mexico; Fort Whipple, Arizona.

Young birds have the bright blue of body and black of head replaced by a dull slate; the head unvaried.

An apparent link between this variety and C. stelleri is represented in the Smithsonian collection by three specimens from the region towards the head-waters of the Columbia, where the respective areas of distribution of the two overlap. In this the anterior parts of the body are nearly as black as in stelleri (much darker than macrolopha), with the short crest; but the forehead (except in one specimen) is streaked with blue, and there is a white patch over the eye. As in stelleri, there are no black bars on the greater wing-coverts. As this is an abundant form, whether permanent race or hybrid, it may be called var. annectens.

HABITS. The Long-crested Jay appears to occur throughout the central range of the Rocky Mountains from British Columbia to Mexico, where it is replaced by a closely allied species or race, the Cyanura coronata of Swainson.

Mr. Ridgway met with this Jay only among the Wahsatch and the Uintah Mountains. They appeared to be rather common in those regions, though far from being abundant. In their manners and in their notes they are described as having been almost an exact counterpart of the Sierra Nevada form. Their notes, however, are said to be not so loud nor so coarse as those of the more western species. A nest, found by Mr. Ridgway, June 25, 1869, in Parley’s Park, Wahsatch Mountains, was in a small fir-tree on the edge of a wood. It was saddled on a horizontal branch about fifteen feet from the ground, and contained six eggs. The base of the nest was composed of coarse strong sticks, rudely put together. Upon this was constructed a solid, firm plastering of mud of a uniform concave shape, lined with fine wiry roots. The external diameter is about nine inches, and the height of the nest four. The interior is five inches in diameter, and three in depth.

The species was first described by Professor Baird, from specimens obtained by Dr. Kennerly, who writes that he first saw this bird among the lofty pines of the Sierra Madre in November, 1853. Leaving that range, he did not meet with it again until his party crossed the Aztec Mountains, in January, 1854, where it was less abundant than when first met with. It was, for the most part, found among the cedars on the high grounds, though occasionally seen among the clumps of large pines that were scattered along the valley. The party did not meet with it again.

Dr. Coues found this species a common and a resident bird in Arizona. It was observed to be almost exclusively an inhabitant of pine woods, and was generally to be met with only in small companies, never congregating in the manner of Woodhouse’s Jay. He describes it as very shy, vigilant, noisy, and tyrannical.

The eggs of C. macrolopha measure 1.30 inches in length and .91 in breadth. Their ground-color is a light sea-green. They are somewhat sparingly spotted with fine markings of dark olive-brown, and lighter cloudings of a purplish or violet brown. They are oblong oval in shape, obtuse at either end, but more tapering at one end. They appear to be a little larger than the eggs of stelleri, and the ground-color is brighter, and the markings deeper and more of an olive hue.

GENUS CYANOCITTA, STRICKLAND.

Cyanocitta, STRICKLAND, Annals and Mag. N. H. XV, 1845, 260. (Type, Garrulus californicus, VIGORS.) Aphelocoma, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851, 221. (Same type.)

CHAR. Head without crest. Wings and tail blue, without any bands. Back usually with a gray patch, different from the head. Bill about as broad as high at the base, and the culmen a little shorter than the head. Nostrils large, nearly circular, and concealed. Tail nearly equal to the wings, lengthened, graduated, or else shorter and nearly even.

This genus is readily distinguished from the preceding by the entire absence of crest and of black bars on the blue of wings and tail. The species and races hitherto described will be found detailed in the accompanying synopsis. The characters indicated above are of no very great generic value, but as the group is a very natural one it will be as well to retain it. As in Cyanura, the species are peculiar to the United States and Mexico, one indeed being apparently confined to the Peninsula of Florida.

[Line drawing: Cyanocitta californica. 8455]

It would perhaps be not very far out of the way to consider Sections A and B as representing in their general characters, respectively, the types from which their subdivisions have sprung.

A. Tail longer than wings. A superciliary stripe of whitish streaks; jugular and pectoral feathers faintly edged with bluish, posteriorly forming an indistinct collar, interrupted medially. Ear-coverts dusky, except in var. woodhousei.

a. Forehead and nasal tufts hoary white; the superciliary stripe a continuous wash of the same. Scapulars blue like the wings; dorsal region (the interscapulars) as light-colored as the lower parts.

C. floridana. Back and lower parts pale ashy-brown; lower tail-coverts bright blue. Wing, 4.50; tail, 5.70; bill, 1.20 and .35; tarsus, 1.40; middle toe, .85. Wing-formula, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3, 8, 9, 2, 10; first, 1.80 shorter than longest. Graduation of tail, 1.50. Hab. Florida (only).

b. Forehead and nasal tufts bright blue; superciliary stripe composed of narrow streaks; scapulars ashy like the back; back much darker than the lower parts.

C. californica.

Lower tail-coverts bright blue, dorsal region not well-defined ashy; auriculars bluish, beneath continuous pure ash. Superciliary streak well defined. Wing, 5.15; tail, 6.00; bill, 1.35 and .30; tarsus, 1.40; middle toe, .85. Wing-formula, fourth, fifth, and sixth equal; 7, 3, 8, 9 = 2; first, 1.80 shorter than longest. Graduation of tail, .90. Hab. Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of United States var. woodhousei.

Lower tail-coverts pure white; dorsal region well-defined ashy; auriculars blackish; beneath dull white, approaching ash on breast. Superciliary streak indistinct. Wing, 5.65; tail, 6.00; bill, 1.20 and .35; tarsus, 1.42; middle toe, .90. Wing-formula, 5, 6, 7, 4, 8, 3, 9, 10 = 2; first, 2.20 shorter than longest. Graduation of tail, .80. Hab. Mexico (Orizaba; City of Mexico) var. sumichrasti.[58]

Superciliary streak sharply defined, conspicuous. Wing, 5.00; tail, 5.60; bill, 1.20 and .37; tarsus, 1.55; middle toe, .95. Wing-formula, 4, 5, 6, 7, 3, 8, 9, 2, 10; first, 2.10 shorter than longest. Graduation of tail, 1.15. Hab. Pacific Province of United States; Cape St. Lucas var. californica.

B. Tail not longer than wings, or considerably shorter. No superciliary stripe, and no streaks on throat or jugulum. Auriculars blue like the crown.

C. ultramarina. Lower parts whitish, conspicuously different from the upper.

Tail nearly, or perfectly even.

Length, 13.00; tail even; bill, 1.50; tail, 7.00. Hab. Mexico var. ultramarina.[59]

Length, 11.50; tail very slightly rounded (graduation, .25 only); bill, 1.28 and .35; tail, 50. Above bright blue, dorsal region obscured slightly with ashy; beneath dull pale ash, becoming gradually whitish posteriorly, the crissum being pure ash. Lores blue. Tarsus, 1.45; middle toe, .95. Wing-formula, 5, 4 = 6, 7, 3, 8, 9, 10, 2; first, 2.10 shorter than longest. Graduation of tail, .25. Hab. Lower Rio Grande var. couchi.

Tail considerably rounded.

Colors as in couchi, but dorsal region scarcely obscured by ashy. Lores black. Wing, 7.50; tail, 7.50; bill, 1.30 and .40; tarsus, 1.60; middle toe, .90. Wing-formula, 5, 4, 6, 3 = 7, 8, 9, 2; first, 2.75, shorter than longest. Graduation of tail, 1.15. Hab. Mexico (Orizaba, Mirador, etc.) var. sordida.[60]

Graduation of the colors as in sordida, but the blue, instead of being a bright ultramarine, is very much paler and duller, and with a greenish cast, the whole dorsal region decidedly ashy; ash of the pectoral region much paler, and throat similar, instead of decidedly whitish, in contrast; pure white of posterior lower parts covering whole abdomen instead of being confined to crissum. Wing, 6.20; tail, 5.70; bill, 1.30 and .40; tarsus, 1.50; middle toe, .97. Wing-formula, fourth, fifth, and sixth equal; 7, 3, 8, 9, 2; first, 2.20, shorter than longest. Graduation of tail, .50. Hab. Southern Rocky Mountains (Fort Buchanan, and Copper Mines, Arizona) var. arizonæ.

C. unicolor.[61] Lower parts bright blue, like the upper. Entirely uniform rich ultramarine-blue; lores black. Wing, 6.70; tail, 6.70; bill, 1.30 and .50; tarsus, 1.45; middle toe, .95. Wing-formula, 5, 6, 4, 7, 3, 8, 9, 2; first, 2.60 shorter than longest. Graduation of tail, 1.50. Hab. Southern Mexico (Cordova, Mirador, etc.); Guatemala.

In the first section of this group we see the same indication of variation from a common type with the region that is so evident in Cyanura. Thus, Cyanocitta woodhousei differs from californica, much as Cyanura macrolopha does from C. stelleri (var. frontalis), in more slender bill and a greater percentage of blue; this invading the back and under parts, the lower tail-coverts especially. But here the parallel of modification ends, for the Mexican representative of the species (C. sumichrasti) appears to revert back to the characters of californica, having like it a minimum amount of blue, though this almost obliterates the superciliary stripe of white. In this respect there is more resemblance to the case of Pipilo fusca and its three races in the three regions inhabited by these representative forms of Cyanocitta californica; for, while the Mexican (P. fusca) and Californian (P. crissalis) are very much alike, the one from the intervening region (P. mesoleuca) is more different from the two extreme races than they are from each other.

In the other section of the genus the relation between arizonæ and sordida is a parallel to that between Cyanura macrolopha and C. coronata; the southern forms (sordida and coronata) differing principally in the greater intensity and prevalence or amount of the blue. The relations of couchi and ultramarina to the two above mentioned are yet obscure, owing to the small material at command,—there being only two specimens of the former, and none of the latter, in the National Museum at Washington.

[58] Cyanocitta sumichrasti, RIDGWAY, Rep. U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Par. All Mexican Cyanocittas with a whitish superciliary streak, blue edgings to jugular feathers, etc., are to be referred to this strongly marked race. A very conspicuous character of this variety is the strong “hook” to the upper mandible; the tip beyond the notch being much elongated, or unusually “produced.” In the collection is a specimen (60,058 ♀, Mexico, A. BOUCARD) which we have referred to this race, but which differs in such an important respect from all other specimens of the several races referrible to californica, as extended, that it may belong to a distinct form. Having the precise aspect of sumichrasti in regard to its upper plumage, it lacks, however, any trace of the blue edgings and pectoral collar, the whole lower parts being continuously uninterrupted dull white, purer posteriorly. The appearance is such as to cause a suspicion that it may be a link between sumichrasti and one of the races of ultramarina. It measures: wing, 5.50; tail, 6.00; graduation of tail, .70.

[59] Cyanocitta ultramarina, (BONAP.) STRICKLAND.—Garrulus ultramarinus, BONAP. J. A. N. S. IV, 1825, 386 (not of Audubon).

[60] Cyanocitta sordida, (SWAINS.) (not of BAIRD, Birds N. Am., which is arizonæ).—SCLATER, Cat. Am. B. 1862, 143. Garrulus sordidus, SWAINS. Phil. Mag. 1827, i, 437.

[61] Cyanocitta unicolor, (DU BUS) BONAP. Consp. p. 378.—Cyanocorax unicolor, DU BUS, Bull. Acad. Brux. XIV, pt. 2, p. 103.

Cyanocitta floridana, BONAP.

FLORIDA JAY.

Corvus floridanus, BARTRAM, Travels, 1791, 291.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 444, pl. lxxxvii. Garrulus floridanus, BON. Am. Orn. II, 1828, 11, pl. xi.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 230.—AUD. Syn. 1839, 154.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 118, pl. ccxxxiii. Cyanurus floridanus, SWAINSON, F. B. A. II, 1831, 495. Cyanocorax floridanus, BON. List, 1838. _Cyanocitta floridana_, BON. Consp. 1850, 377.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 586.—ALLEN, B. E. Fla. 298. Aphelocoma floridana, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851, 22. Garrulus cyaneus, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. XII, 1817, 476 (not described). ? Garrulus cærulescens, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. XII, 1817, 480.—ORD. J. A. N. Sc. I, 1818, 347. Pica cærulescens, WAGLER, Syst. Av. 1827, Pica, No. 11.

SP. CHAR. Tail much graduated; lateral feathers nearly 1.50 inches shortest. Tail an inch longer than the wings. Above blue, including scapulars; interscapular region and back brownish-ash, the former lighter. Forehead and sides of the crown, including the nasal feathers, hoary white. Sides of head and neck blue; the former tinged with blackish, the latter sending a streaked collar of the same entirely across the breast; region anterior to this collar dirty white, streaked on the edges of the feathers with blue; rest of under parts dirty whitish-brown; under tail-coverts blue, the tibia tinged with the same. Length, 11.00; wing, 4.50; tail, 5.70; tarsus, 1.45.

HAB. Florida only, and quite local.

HABITS. This beautiful species appears to be exclusively confined to the peninsula of Florida, and there is no authentic evidence that it has ever been found outside of the limits of that State. The statement of Bonaparte, that these birds are found in the States of Louisiana and Kentucky, has never been confirmed, and Mr. Audubon, who was for many years a resident of both States and familiar with the birds of each, was very positive the statement was without foundation. It has never been observed even in Georgia or Alabama, and Mr. Nuttall states that it is not found in any part of West Florida.

Mr. Allen, in his recent paper on the winter birds of East Florida, speaking of this species, states that it is numerous in the scrub, but does not appear to frequent the pine woods, the hummocks, or the swamps. He saw none along the St. John’s, except at Blue Springs, but they occur in numbers a few miles back from the river.

Dr. Bryant, in his Notes on the birds of Florida, mentions that this species is tolerably plentiful in the vicinity of Enterprise. He regarded it as exceedingly interesting on account of its limited geographical distribution. With no apparent obstacle to its movements, it is yet confined to a small part of the peninsula of Florida, its area of distribution north and south not exceeding three degrees of latitude, if so much. He saw none north of St. Augustine, and none south of Jupiter’s Inlet. So far as he observed them, they were exclusively confined to the growth of scrub-oak, which in many places is so entangled with creeping plants that it is impossible to walk through without cutting a path. This growth is generally found on elevated ridges running parallel to the sea-coast. The most extensive of these, near Enterprise, is about three miles wide, and eighty feet above the lake.

The flight of this species is said by Mr. Audubon to be performed at a short distance from the ground, and to consist either of a single sailing sweep, as it passes from one tree to another, or of continuous flappings with a slightly undulating motion, in the manner of the Canada Jay. Its notes are described as softer than those of the Blue Jay, and more frequently uttered. Its motions are also quicker and more abrupt. Its food is said to consist of snails, which it collects on the ground, insects, and various kinds of fruits and berries. It is also charged with being very destructive of eggs and young birds.

The Florida Jay is said to be easily kept in confinement, feeding readily on dried or fresh fruit and the kernels of various nuts, and soon appears to be reconciled to its loss of liberty. It secures its food between its feet, and breaks it into pieces before swallowing it. In this way it feeds on the acorn of the live-oak, snails, and the seeds of the sword-palmetto.

The nest of this Jay is formed of dry sticks, placed across each other, and, although rounded in form, is so lightly made that the birds may be seen through its interstices. It is lined with fibrous rootlets. Only one brood is raised in a season. Audubon’s descriptions of its eggs are inaccurate, and only applicable to those of the Blue Jay.

Mr. Audubon observed a pair of these birds in confinement in New Orleans. They were fed upon rice and dry fruit. At dessert they were allowed their liberty, when they would fly to the table, feed on the almonds given them, and drink claret diluted with water. They attempted to mimic various sounds, but did so very imperfectly.

Mr. Nuttall states that at the approach of winter these birds retire to the south of St. Augustine. He regards their voice as less harsh than that of the Blue Jay, and states that they have a variety of notes, some of which are probably imitations, and are said to resemble the song of the Wood Thrush and the calls of the common Jay.

An egg of the Florida Jay before me is of a rounded oval shape, being nearly equally obtuse at either end. The ground-color is a light bluish-gray, marked almost exclusively at the larger end with a few small spots of a light rufous-brown. It has no near resemblance to the eggs of the California Jay, nor to those of any other Jay that I have seen. It measures 1.05 inches by .80.

In its flight and action, Dr. Bryant thought the Florida Jay resembled the Mocking-Bird. It has none of the restless, suspicious manner of the Blue Jay. He never heard it utter more than a single note, this being much softer than the usual cry of the Blue Jay; its song he regarded as rather monotonous. It seldom flies more than a short distance at a time, and seems to trust for protection to the difficulty of access to its abode. It also evinces a great partiality for particular localities. Generally only a single pair is seen at a time, though in one place he has seen three pairs together. It is not fond of civilization, and is seldom known to frequent the vicinity of dwellings.

A nest found by Dr. Bryant on the 15th of April was built in a scrub-oak about three feet from the ground. It was made of small twigs, compactly and carefully lined with fibres of the dwarf palmetto, that had apparently been brought a distance of half a mile. The cavity measured about five inches in breadth and one and a half in depth. The nest contained three eggs of a light blue, sparingly sprinkled with rufous, the spots being larger and more numerous towards the larger end. Another nest, found a few days later, contained five eggs of a more neutral tint, with the spots darker, larger, and more evenly distributed.

Cyanocitta californica, STRICKLAND.

CALIFORNIA JAY.

Garrulus californicus, VIGORS, Zoöl. Beechey’s Voyage, 1839, 21, pl. v. Cyanocitta californica, STRICKLAND, Ann. Mag. XV, 1845, 342.—GAMBEL, J. A. N. Sc. 2d series, I, Dec. 1847, 45.—BON. Conspectus, 1850, 377.—NEWBERRY, P. R. R. Rep. VI, IV, 1857, 85.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 584.—HEERM. X, S, 55.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 302. Cyanocorax californicus, GAMBEL, Pr. A. N. Sc. III, Ap. 1847, 201. Aphelocoma californica, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851, 221.—BON. Comptes Rendus, XXXVII, Nov. 1853, 828; Notes Orn. Delattre. Corvus ultramarinus, AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 456, pl. ccclxii (not Garrulus ultramarinus, BON.). Garrulus ultramarinus, AUD. Syn. 1839, 154.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 115, pl. ccxxxii (not of BONAPARTE). Cyanocitta superciliosa, STRICKLAND, Ann. Mag. XV, 1845, 260 (type of genus Cyanocitta). “Corvus palliatus, DRAPIEZ,” BONAP.

SP. CHAR. Width of bill at base of lower mandible rather more than half the length of culmen. Lateral tail-feathers about an inch the shortest. Tail an inch longer than the wings. General color above, including the surface of the wings, bright blue, without bars. The whole back, including to some extent the scapulars, brownish-ash, very faintly glossed with blue in the adult. À streaked white superciliary line from a little anterior to the eye as far as the occiput. Sides of the head and neck blue, the region around and behind the eye, including lores and most of ear-coverts, black. The blue of the sides of the neck extends across the forepart of the breast, forming a crescent, interrupted in the middle. The under parts anterior to the crescent white, the feathers edged with blue; behind it dull white; the sides tinged with brown. Length, 12.25; wing, 5.00; tail, 6.15; tarsus, 1.55. (No. 2,841.)

HAB. Pacific Province from Columbia River to Cape St. Lucas; Carson City, Nevada (RIDGWAY).

Specimens from Cape St. Lucas are rather smaller and perhaps whiter beneath than elsewhere; those from the eastern slope of Sierra Nevada are very large. Upon a careful comparison, we find that the supposed specimens of C. californica in the Smithsonian collection from Mexico (Orizaba, etc.) constitute a quite different form, characterized by very indistinct superciliary white and bluish edges to throat and jugular feathers, and especially by the lengthened wings, which average 5.75 inches instead of 5.00. In general respects the resemblance, as suggested by Sclater, is to californica, and not to woodhousei. The dorsal patch is very distinct.

One Mexican specimen (8,465 from Real del Monte?), presented by Mr. John Gould, differs again in having the dorsal patch obscured by a bluish wash; an unusual amount of blue edging to the throat and jugular feathers, and a dull brownish tinge to the belly. It almost suggests the possibility of a hybrid form between sumichrasti and ultramarina.

HABITS. The California Jay appears to be a Pacific coast species, occurring from the Columbia River southward to Cape St. Lucas, but not found in the interior at any considerable distance from the coast. Mr. Ridgway speaks of it as the Valley Jay of California, having been observed by him in abundance only among the oaks of the Sacramento Valley, the brushwood of the ravines, and the scattered pines of the foot-hills along the western base of the Sierra Nevada. It was also quite common, in April, in the vicinity of Carson City, where he found it breeding. Its notes and manners, he adds, are very similar to those of the Woodhouse Jay, belonging to the wooded regions of the interior, but the shrill cries of this species are even more piercing. There is, moreover, something in its appearance, caused by the sharp contrast of the bright blue, the light ash, and the pure white colors, by which it may be distinguished at a glance from the more uniformly colored woodhousei.

Dr. Heerman speaks of it as frequenting to some extent the same districts as Steller’s Jay, but also found in greater abundance throughout the valleys. He likewise describes it as noisy, alert, and cunning in its habits, wild and wary, and yet often seeking the habitations of man, near which to rear its young, drawn thither by the abundance of food found in such localities. Their nests, he states, are built in a thick-leaved bush, or on the lower branches of an oak, at but little height from the ground. They are constructed of twigs, and are lined with fine rootlets. The eggs, four in number, are, he says, emerald-green in color, profusely dotted with umber-brown spots.

Dr. Newberry states that he found the trees and the thickets bordering the streams in the valleys the favorite haunts of the California Jay. As his party ascended among the evergreen forests of the higher grounds, and passed northeasterly from the Sacramento Valley, these birds were no longer met with, and long before reaching the Oregon line they lost sight of it altogether. Nor did they meet with it again until their return to California. This Jay, he adds, has all the sprightliness and restlessness of the family, but is less noisy, and its notes are far more agreeable than those of Steller’s Jay, by which it is replaced at the north.

The Smithsonian Museum has a specimen of this species obtained on the Columbia by Townsend, and Mr. Nuttall mentions that early in October, on arriving at the forests of the Columbia, near Fort Vancouver, he met with it in company with Steller’s Jay. They were breeding in the dark pine woods, and by the 15th of June they were feeding their fully fledged young. He also states that they were found as far north as Fraser’s River, migrating to the south at the approach of winter. Without questioning the correctness of this statement, it is worthy of mention that these birds have not been met there by more recent collectors, and that Dr. Newberry nowhere met with them in Oregon. Dr. Cooper suggests that, since then, the increased severity of the winters may have driven them permanently farther south.

Mr. Nuttall describes its habits as very much like those of the Blue Jay. It usually flies out to the tops of the tallest pines, jerks its tail, and perches playfully on some extreme branch, where, as if in anger, it calls woit, woit-woit, with an occasional recognition note of twee-twee. When pursued, it retreats to the shade of the loftiest branches. It feeds on insects, acorns, which it breaks up, and pine seeds. He describes it as a graceful, active, and shy bird, with a note much less harsh and loud than that of Steller’s Jay.

Dr. Cooper remarks that this species is one of the most common and conspicuous of the birds of the State of California. They frequent every locality in which oak-trees are found, even within the limits of large towns, where they enter gardens and audaciously plunder the fruit. They have all the usual cunning of their tribe, and when alarmed become very quiet, and conceal themselves in the thick foliage. They are usually noisy and fearless, and their odd cries, grotesque actions, and bright plumage make them general favorites in spite of their depredations. They are also said to have a talent for mimicry, besides notes to express their various wants and ideas.

They breed abundantly throughout the western parts of California, and construct a large and strong nest of twigs, roots, and grass. These are placed in a low tree or bush. They lay about five eggs, which Dr. Cooper describes as dark green marked with numerous pale brown blotches and spots, and measure 1.80 by 1.04 inches. At San Diego he found these eggs laid as early as April 5.

This Jay inhabits the Coast Range of mountains to their summit, south of San Francisco, and the Sierra Nevada as far as the oaks extend, or to an elevation of from 1,000 to 5,000 feet. Dr. Cooper saw none on the east side of the Sierra Nevada in latitude 39°.

He describes their flight as slow and laborious, on account of their short wings, and states that they never fly far at a time. He also accuses them of being very destructive to the eggs of smaller birds, hunting for them in the spring, and watching the movements of other birds with great attention.

Mr. Xantus found these birds very abundant at Cape St. Lucas, being, like all the other resident species there, much smaller than those occurring in more northern localities. Their habits are said to be very much the same.

This species was taken in winter near Oaxaca, Mexico, by Mr. Boucard.

Four eggs of this species from different parts of California present the following measurements: 1.20 × 0.85; 1.10 × 0.80; 1.13 × 0.80; 1.05 × 0.80. The measurements given by Dr. Cooper we are confident must be a mistake. Their ground-color is a bright, but not a dark, emerald-green; and they are marked and blotched with faint purplish-brown, and deeper spots of dark umber. These spots are sparingly distributed, and are chiefly about the larger end. In one they are wholly of a light violet-brown. These eggs are of a perfectly oval shape.

Mr. Charles D. Gibbes, of Stockton, writes that he found in a garden in that city a nest built by a pair of these birds that had become half domesticated. It was placed in a very thick arbor of honeysuckle. The body of the nest was composed of clippings from a hedge of osage orange, with thorns on them half an inch long. These twigs were tied and interlaced with twine and bits of cotton strings. Within this frame was a layer of fine weeds and grasses nicely arranged, the whole lined with horse-hair. The nest was found in May, and contained five eggs. The parents kept a good deal about the kitchen door, and would steal anything they had an opportunity to take. They made use of an old nest in the same garden as a receptacle for their stolen goods; among other things was found a large slice of bread-and-butter.

Cyanocitta californica, var. woodhousei, BAIRD.

WOODHOUSE’S JAY.

Cyanocitta woodhousei, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 585, pl. lix.—IB. Mex. B. II, Birds, 20, pl. xxi.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 304.

SP. CHAR. Size and general appearance of C. californica. Bill slender. Graduation of tail one inch. Blue, with a very obscure ashy patch on the back. Sides of the head and neck and incomplete pectoral collar, blue; throat streaked with the same. Breast and belly uniform brownish-ash, glossed with blue; under tail-coverts bright blue. Sides of head, including lores, black, glossed with blue below; a streaked white superciliary line. Length, 11.50; wing, 5.35; tail, 6.10; tarsus, 1.60. Young. All the blue, except that of the wings and tail, replaced by dull ash.

HAB. Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of United States; north to Idaho and Wyoming (RIDGWAY); south to Northern Mexico; east to Wyoming and Colorado.

The bluish wash on the back nearly obscuring the dorsal patch, the general ashy tinge of the under parts, the decided blue under tail-coverts, and the longer and much slenderer bill, distinguish this form from californica, although probably both are geographical races of the same species.

HABITS. This bird was first met with by Dr. Woodhouse among the San Francisco Mountains of New Mexico, and was given by him, in his Report of the Sitgreaves Expedition, as the California Jay. He states in regard to it, that wherever he found the piñon, or nut-pine (Pinus edulis), growing in New Mexico, this bird was sure to be there in great numbers, feeding upon the fruit of those trees. Among the men it was known as the piñon bird. Its notes are said to be harsh and disagreeable. It was extremely restless, and was continually in motion, flying from tree to tree, uttering its well-known cries.

Mr. Ridgway calls this a very interesting species, and states that it was found very abundant in the fertile cañons of the West Humboldt Mountains, as well as in all the extensive nut-pine and cedar woods to the eastward. On the Toyaba and East Humboldt Mountains, and the extensive piñon woods in Southern Idaho, it was equally common. In Utah, in the cañons of the Wahsatch Mountains, it was occasionally seen, though oftener observed in the valley of the Weber. When unmolested, this bird is, he states, very unsuspicious, and anything unusual at once excites its curiosity. Often when at work, in camp, skinning birds, on the edge of bushes, one of them would approach within a few feet, and quietly watch every movement. At Unionsville they were quite common in the gardens and around the door-yards of the town, and were very familiar and unsuspicious. Their cries greatly resembled those of the California Jay, and consisted of a repetition of harsh screeching notes.

This species, according to Dr. Coues, is a resident and a very abundant species in Arizona, where it is one of the most characteristic species. It was found in all situations, but seemed to shun dense pine woods, and to prefer to keep on the open hillsides, among the scrub-oaks, etc. In winter it collects in rather large flocks, sometimes as many as fifty together. They are, however, usually seen in small groups of six or seven individuals. They are said to be a restless, vigilant, shy, and noisy species.

Mr. C. E. Aiken found this bird a common and resident species in Colorado. He met with it along the foot of the mountains, in brush thickets, in which they also breed. The base and periphery of a nest found by him were composed of dead twigs, intermingled within with fine rootlets and horsehair. The eggs, four or five in number, are said to be laid about the first of May. They have a ground-color of a light bluish-green, and marked with reddish-brown specks, thickest at the larger end. They are of a rounded oval shape, much more pointed at one end, and rounded at the other, and average 1.06 inches in length by .80 of an inch in breadth.

Cyanocitta ultramarina, var. arizonæ, RIDGWAY.

Cyanocitta sordida (not of SWAINS.!), BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 587, pl. lx. f. 1.—IB. Mex. B. II, Birds, 21, pl. xxii, f. 1.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 305. Cyanocitta sordida var. arizonæ, RIDGWAY, Rep. U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Par.

SP. CHAR. Bill short, thick; half as high as long. Wing considerably longer than the tail, which is slightly graduated (.50 of an inch). Upper surface (including whole side of head to the throat) light sky-blue, the whole dorsal region inclining to pure bluish-ashy. Beneath fine, uniform, pale ash for anterior half (including the throat), this gradually fading into white on the posterior portions (including whole abdomen), the lower tail-coverts being pure white. Lores blue. Length, 13.00; wing, 6.20; tail, 5.70; culmen, 1.30; depth of bill, .40; tarsus, 1.50; middle toe, .97. Fourth, fifth, and sixth quills equal and longest, second shorter than ninth; first 2.20 shorter than longest. (18,279, Fort Buchanan, Arizona, December; Dr. Irwin.) Immature (8,469 ♂, Copper Mines, Arizona). The blue, except that of the wings and tail, replaced by dull ash; the blue feathers appearing in scattered patches.

HAB. Arizona (Copper Mines, J. H. Clark; and Fort Buchanan, Dr. Irwin, U. S. A.).

The nearest ally of this race is the var. sordida of Mexico, which, however, differs in many important respects; the differences between the two being giving in the synopsis (page 880), it is unnecessary to repeat them here. In both there is a tendency towards a party-colored bill; each example of the northern style, and most of those of the southern, having more or less whitish on the lower mandible.

Nothing definite is known as to the habits or reproduction of this bird.

Cyanocitta ultramarina, var. couchi, BAIRD.

ULTRAMARINE JAY.

Garrulus ultramarinus, BONAP. J. A. N. Sc. IV, 1825, 386 (not of AUDUBON).—TEMM. Pl. Col. II, 439. Cyanocitta ultramarina, STRICKLAND, Ann. & Mag. XV, 1845, 260.—GAMBEL, J. A. N. Sc. 2d Ser. I, 1847, 45.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 588, pl. 60, f. 2.—IB. Mex. B. II, Birds 21, pl. xxii. Cyanogarrulus ultramarinus, BON. Consp. 1850, 378. Cyanocitta couchi, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 588.

SP. CHAR. Tail rounded, but little graduated; lateral feather about a quarter of an inch shortest. Wings longer than the tail; when closed, reaching nearly to its middle. Above and on sides of head and neck bright blue; the lores blackish; the middle of the back slightly duller, the tips of some of the feathers dark brown. Beneath brownish-ash, paler on the chin and towards the anal region, which, with the crissum, is white. No trace of white or black on the sides of the head, nor of any streaks or collar on the breast. Length, (fresh,) 11.50; wing, 6.00; tail, (dried,) 5.40; tarsus, 1.50.

HAB. South side of valley of Rio Grande, near the coast, and southward.

This well-marked species is quite different in form from the C. californica, having a shorter, more even tail, much longer wings, and stouter feet. The absence of any collar or streaks on the breast and throat, of black or white on the side of the head, and of decided ash on the back, are very well marked features. There is also much more green in the blue of the head.

As suggested in the P. R. R. Report, the birds collected by Lieutenant Couch at Monterey, Mexico, although agreeing almost exactly with the original description of Bonaparte, are much smaller, and perhaps entitled to recognition as a separate form. The tail is nearly two inches less, 5.40 instead of 7.00, or over.

HABITS. The Ultramarine Jay is a well-marked species, and is specifically quite distinct from the C. californica. It is found in the valley of the Rio Grande, and thence southward and eastward in the northern provinces of Mexico. Though we know of no specimens having been procured on this side of the boundary line, their occurrence is quite probable. Lieutenant Couch met with this species near Monterey, Mexico, and from thence west to Parras. He describes it as being gregarious and eminently Jay-like in its habits. They are very noisy and vociferous in their outcries, and three or four of them suffice to keep a whole forest in an uproar. Near Guyapuco a large snake (Georgia obsoleta) was seen pursued by three or four of this species. The reptile was making every effort to escape from their combined attacks, and would, no doubt, have been killed by them, had they not been interfered with. The cause of so much animosity against the snake was explained when, on opening its stomach, three young of this species, about two thirds grown, were found.

In the Department of Vera Cruz, Sumichrast found what he calls C. ultramarina in company with Cyanura coronata and Cyanocitta nana, “californica” (Sumichrasti), and sordida, occurring in the alpine region, and with the three first named restricted to that locality. The limit of their extension is about that of the alpine region, that is, from an elevation of about 4,500 feet to the height of 10,500 feet. The sordida is also found on the plateau.

GENUS XANTHOURA, BONAP.

Xanthoura, BONAPARTE, Consp. Av. 1850. (Type, “Corvus peruvianus, GM.”)

[Line drawing: Xanthoura luxuosa. 4052]

CHAR. Head without crest. Throat black. Lateral tail-feathers bright yellow. Bill very stout, rather higher than broad; culmen curved from the base. Nostrils rather small, oval, concealed by a nasal tuft varying in length with species. Tail longer than the wings; graduated. The wings concave, rounded; the secondaries nearly as long as the primaries. Legs very stout; hind claw about half the total length of the toe.

The genus Xanthoura is composed of three so-called species, of different geographical distribution, and exhibits a progressive change from one to the other, with variation of latitude that enforces assent to the hypothesis of their all belonging to one primitive form. These differences may be expressed as follows:—

COMMON CHARACTERS. Nasal tufts, patch on side of lower jaw and one above eye, (both eyelids,) bright blue; remainder of face and throat black. Back, and upper surface of wings and tail (the four central feathers), green, the latter tinged with blue at end; the rest of tail-feathers bright yellow. Belly and crissum varying from bright yellow to green. Forehead yellowish or whitish.

a. Nasal tufts short, only covering the nostrils; whole top of head (except anteriorly) and nape bright blue.

1. Body beneath, and crissum, green. Hab. Mexico and South Texas var. luxuosa.

2. Body beneath, and crissum, yellow, sides more greenish. Hab. Guatemala and Honduras var. guatemalensis.

b. Nasal tuft elongated, forming an anterior crest, the feathers reaching far beyond nostrils. Whole top of head pale heavy yellow, glossed behind with bluish.

3. Body beneath, and crissum, very bright gamboge-yellow. Hab. Colombia, Ecuador, Bogota, and Bolivia var. incas.

Thus, starting with the green-bellied luxuosa of the Rio Grande, we come to the yellow-bellied guatemalensis; but intermediate localities show different proportions of the two colors. The nasal tufts in the first do not extend beyond the nasal fossæ; and the frontal yellowish is very narrow. In the second these tufts reach beyond the fossæ, and the frontal yellowish is more extended. In incas again the nasal tufts have reached their maximum, while the frontal yellowish extends over the whole cap, leaving only a trace of blue on the nape.

Xanthoura incas, var. luxuosa, BONAP.

GREEN JAY.

Garrulus luxuosus, LESSON, Rev. Zoöl. April, 1839, 100. Cyanocorax luxuosus, DU BUS, Esquisses Ornithologiques, IV, 1848, pl. xviii.—CASSIN, Illust. I, 1853, I, pl. i. Xanthoura luxuosa, BON. Consp. 1850, 380.—CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851, 224.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 589. Pica chloronota, WAGLER, Isis, 1829, 750 (young male; name belongs to Corvus peruvianus, GM.). Cyanocorax cyanicapillus, CABANIS, Fauna Peruana, 1844-46, 233 (note). Cyanocorax yncas, “BODDÆRT,” LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. V, April, 1851, 115 (first added here to fauna of United States).

SP. CHAR. Wings shorter than the tail, which is much graduated, the lateral feathers 1.25 inches shorter. Above green; beneath yellow, glossed continuously with green; inside of wings and outer four tail-feathers straw-yellow; rest of tail feathers green, glossed with blue. Sides of the head, and beneath from the bill to the forepart of the breast, velvet-black. Crown, nape, and a short maxillary stripe running up to the eye and involving the upper eyelid, brilliant blue; the nostril-feathers rather darker; the sides of the forehead whitish. Bill black; feet lead-color. Length, 11.00; wing, 4.75; tail, 5.40; tarsus, 1.65.

HAB. Valley of Rio Grande, of Texas, and southward.

As remarked above, the passage into the yellow-bellied guatemalensis is gradual as we proceed south; and the latter, and perhaps even the incas, can only be considered as fellow races of a common original species.

HABITS. Within the limits of the United States this beautiful species has thus far been only met with in Southeastern Texas in the lower valley of the Rio Grande. It was first described in 1839, by M. Lesson, a French naturalist, from a Mexican specimen, and in 1851 was first brought to our notice as a bird of the United States by Mr. Geo. N. Lawrence of New York. Specimens of this bird were obtained by the party of the Mexican Boundary Survey, and by Lieutenant Couch on the Rio Grande, at Matamoras, New Leon, and San Diego, Mexico. The only note as to its habits by Lieutenant Couch is to the effect that it eats seeds and insects.

The late Dr. Berlandier of Matamoras obtained specimens of this bird in the vicinity of that city, which were found among his collections. Among his manuscript notes occurs a description of the plumage and habits of this species, which he had described under the name of Pica cervantesii. In this he states that this bird inhabits the whole eastern coast of Mexico, but that he has only met with it on the banks of the Rio Bravo del Norte, in the vicinity of Matamoras. It is said to be both carnivorous and graminivorous, and comes about the houses in search of the refuse. Although it can swallow whole grains of corn, before eating it breaks them with its beak, holding them between its claws, in the manner of birds of prey, and biting with great force. It is commonly known as Pajaro verde, or Greenbird.

Mr. Dresser states that this species was common on the lower Rio Grande during the winter, but was not found on the Upper Rio Grande or in Texas, except as a straggler from Mexico.

This bird, Mr. Sumichrast states, is common throughout the Department of Vera Cruz, where it is generally known by the name of Verde detoca and Sonaja. It is said to be one of the birds most generally diffused throughout the whole department. It inhabits both the hot and the temperate regions, and is found even at the foot of the alpine, to the altitude of nearly six thousand feet above the sea. It is also said to be abundant in other parts of Mexico. It was observed to be quite numerous on the Tierra templada, or table-lands, and also among the hills that bound the plains of Perote and Puebla on the east, by Mr. William S. Pease, a naturalist who was with General Scott’s army in its campaign in Mexico. Mr. Pease stated that it lived on the sides of the hills throughout the year, and that its local name was Pepe verde.

Colonel George A. McCall, Inspector-General of the United States Army, was the first person to collect these birds within our limits. He obtained them in the forests that border the Rio Grande on the southeastern frontier of Texas. There he found them all mated in the month of May, and he felt no doubt that they had their nests in the extensive and almost impenetrable thickets of mimosa, commonly called chaparral. From the jealousy and pugnacity which these birds manifested on the approach, or appearance even, of the large boat-tailed Blackbirds of that country (Quiscalus macrurus), which were nesting in great numbers in the vicinity, Colonel McCall was satisfied that the Jays were at that time also engaged in the duties of incubation and rearing their young. In character and temperament these birds appeared to be very active and lively, though less noisy than some other species of the family. Their gay plumage was exhibited to great advantage as they flitted from tree to tree, or dashed boldly in pursuit of such of their more plainly attired neighbors as ventured to intrude upon their domain.

Captain J. P. McCown, also quoted by Mr. Cassin, furnishes some additional observations in regard to these birds. He states that during the several years that he was in Texas, he frequently saw these Jays, but never met with them above Ringgold Barracks, or north of the woods that skirt the Rio Grande. They seemed to prefer the acacia groves which have sprung up where the ground has been overflowed. He regards it as a rather cautious bird. He observed nests high up in the trees above mentioned, which he supposes belong to this species, though this was never positively ascertained. He had no doubt that they breed in Texas.

GENUS PERISOREUS, BONAP.

Perisoreus, BONAP. Saggio di una dist. met. 1831. (Type, _Corvus canadensis?_) Dysornithia, SWAINSON, F. B. Am. II, 1831, 495. (Same type.)

CHAR. Feathers lax and full, especially on the back, and of very dull colors, without any blue. Head without distinct crest. Bill very short; broader than high. Culmen scarcely half the length of the head; straight to near the tip, then slightly curved; gonys more curved than culmen. Bill notched at tip. Nostrils round, covered by bristly feathers. Tail about equal to the wings; graduated. Tarsi rather short; but little longer than the middle toe. Plumage very soft, and without any lustre.

The Canada Jay has a near ally in a species of northern Europe and Siberia,—the Siberian Jay (P. infaustus). In size and proportions the two are quite identical, there being about the same proportionate length of wing and tail, and a general correspondence in the minutiæ of external anatomy. In colors, however, they differ entirely; the P. infaustus having the head darker than the body, and uniform (instead of the contrary), and in having the lower primary and lower feathers of the greater coverts, as well as the greater part of the tail, bright rufous.

A. Dusky nuchal hood reaching forward to, or in front of, the eyes; plumbeous-black.

Dorsal feathers with white shafts in old and young. Tail-feathers not distinctly paler at ends.

1. White frontal patch narrower than length of the bill; blending gradually with the blackish of the crown. Upper parts umber-brownish. Wing, 5.50; tail, 5.40; bill, .90 and .30. Young. Entirely plumbeous-brown, feathers of head above bordered with paler. Beneath paler, whitish brown. Hab. Oregon, Washington Territory, British Columbia, etc. var. obscurus.

Dorsal feathers without white shafts in old or young. Tail-feathers broadly tipped with dull white.

2. White frontal patch much broader than length of bill; abruptly defined, with a convex outline behind, against the dusky of the occiput. Upper parts plumbeous, with a slight brownish cast. Wing, 5.25; tail, 5.80; bill, .95 and .35. Young. Entirely uniform dark plumbeous. Hab. Canada, Maine, and Labrador to the Yukon var. canadensis.

B. Dusky nuchal hood not reaching to the eyes, but confined to the nape; bluish-plumbeous.

3. White frontal patch covering whole crown, melting gradually into the ashy of the nape; upper parts bluish-ashy. Wing, 6.00; tail, 6.00; bill, 1.00 and .31. Young. Bluish-plumbeous, inclining to ashy-white on the crown and cheeks. Hab. Rocky Mountains of United States var. capitalis.

[Line drawing: Perisoreus canadensis. 18440 8452]

In the more slender form, longer and narrower bill, and paler tints with a predominance of the light colors, of the var. capitalis, compared with the typical, or standard, var. canadensis, we see the peculiar impression of the middle region; while in the var. obscurus, the more dusky tints, and predominance of darker colors, the influence of the well-known law affecting colors in birds of the northwest coast region is seen.

Perisoreus canadensis, BONAP.

CANADA JAY; WHISKEY-JACK; MOOSE-BIRD.

Corvus canadensis, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 158.—FORSTER, Phil. Trans. LXII, 1772, 382.—WILSON, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 33, pl. xxi.—BON. Obs. 1824, No. 42.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 53; V, 1839, 208, pl. cvii. Garrulus canadensis, BON. (Saggio, 1831?) Syn. 1828, 58.—SWAINSON, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 295.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 232.—AUD. Syn. 1839, 155.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 121, pl. ccxxxiv. Dysornithia canadensis, SWAINSON, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, Appendix. _Perisoreus canadensis_, BON. List, 1838.—IB. Conspectus, 1850, 375.—CAB. Mus. Hein. 1851, 219.—NEWBERRY, Rep. P. R. R. Surv. VI, IV, 1857, 85.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 590.—COUES, P. A. N. S. 1861, 226.—SAMUELS, 366. Garrulus fuscus, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. XII, 1817, 479. Pica nuchalis, WAGLER, Syst. Av. 1827 (Pica No. 14). Garrulus trachyrrhynchus, SWAINSON, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 296, pl. lv (young). “Coracias mexicanus, TEMMINCK,” GRAY.

SP. CHAR. Tail graduated; lateral feathers about one inch shortest. Wings a little shorter than the tail. Head and neck and forepart of breast white. A rather sooty plumbeous nuchal patch, becoming darker behind, from the middle of the cap to the back, from which it is separated by an interrupted whitish collar. Rest of upper parts dark ashy-plumbeous; the outer primaries margined, the secondaries, tertials, and tail-feathers obscurely tipped with white. Beneath smoky-gray. Crissum whitish. Bill and feet black. Length, 10.70; wing, 5.75; tail, 6.00; tarsus, 1.40.

HAB. Eastern Northern America into the northern part of United States; British America to Upper Yukon.

The young of this species are everywhere of a dull sooty-plumbeous, lighter on the middle of the belly, and more bluish-plumbeous on the wings and tail. With increasing age the region about the base of the bill whitens.

There is a decided bluish cast to the plumbeous of the tail. The white frontal patch has a convex posterior outline, and is abruptly defined against the blackish of the occiput and nape.

All specimens from Canada and the Northeastern United States, to the interior of British America, are referrible to this variety; in the Yukon Territory specimens show a tendency to var. obscurus of the northwest coast, having a narrower whitish frontal patch.

HABITS. The Canada Jay was procured at Fort Simpson by Mr. Kennicott in August, September, and December, and at the same point by Mr. Ross in March and April, in the years 1860 and 1861. It was found breeding in May at Anderson River Fort by Mr. MacFarlane. It was also procured at Big Island by Mr. Reid, at Nulato and Unalakleet by Mr. Dall, at St. Michael’s by Colonel Bulkley, at Fort Kenai by Bischoff, and at Fort Rae by Mr. Clarke. From the memoranda of Mr. MacFarlane, we have valuable information in regard to the nesting and breeding habits of this species. May 24, at Fort Anderson, an Indian lad discovered a nest of this Jay. It was built in a tree, was composed of hay and feathers, and contained, with two young birds a few days old, an egg that was perfectly fresh. This bird, Mr. MacFarlane states, is tolerably numerous in that quarter. During the severe cold of winter it is not quite so common as at other seasons. It is by no means a difficult bird to shoot, as it will always venture into close proximity to man. Flesh or fish are certain to attract numbers of them, and they also cause great annoyance to the marten-hunter, by eating the bait placed in the traps used for capturing those animals. None of this species were observed on the Arctic coast, nor east of Horton River, Fort Anderson being the most northern point where Mr. MacFarlane saw any, in his journeys across the barren grounds.

Other nests found in the same region were usually built in spruce-trees, on branches near the trunk, well concealed from view, and about ten feet from the ground. They were constructed of hay and feathers, supported underneath by a few willow sticks laid crosswise.

Mr. Dall characterizes this species as a very bold and familiar bird, that will frequently fly down and steal away his dinner from some hungry dog, if he is not on the alert, or devour the fish hung up in camp by the Indians to dry. They breed very early, and occupy the same nest year after year. The nest is very large, and composed entirely of soft materials, moss, hair, and the like. On the 20th of April, Mr. Dall received a nest of this Jay containing four half-fledged young, so that they must lay in March. The bird was abundant everywhere on the Yukon River.

These birds are known throughout the fur countries by the name of Whiskey-Jack, not from any supposed predilection for that beverage, but probably, as Mr. Kennicott has suggested, from a corruption of the Indian name for these birds, Wiss-ka-chon, which has been contorted into Whiskey-John and thence into Whiskey-Jack. Richardson observed these birds from Canada to the fur countries as far as latitude 69°. Throughout that region it is a constant attendant at the fur-posts and fishing-stations, and becomes so tame in the winter as to feed from the hand. Yet it is impatient of confinement, and soon pines away if deprived of its liberty. Its voice is said to be plaintive and squeaking, though it occasionally makes a low chattering. It hoards berries, pieces of meat, etc., in hollow trees, or between layers of bark, by which it is enabled to feed its young while the ground is still covered with snow.

Dr. Newberry found this Jay as far to the south, in California, as the upper end of the Sacramento Valley, in latitude 40°. The fact that the isothermal line of this region passes south of Cincinnati, shows that climate and temperature do not regulate the range of this species. As observed in the summer months among the forests of Oregon, the Canada Jay appeared as a rather shy bird, exhibiting none of the familiarity and impudence exhibited in winter when made bold by hunger.

Wilson mentions the St. Lawrence as the southern boundary of this bird, a few only wintering in Northern New York and Vermont. But this is inexact. They are found resident throughout the year in a large part of Maine and in all the highlands of New Hampshire and Vermont. They are resident at Calais, where they breed in March at about latitude 45°, and descend in the winter to the southwest corner of Vermont, whence it is quite probable a few cross into Massachusetts, at Williamstown and Adams, though none have been detected, that I am aware. Wilson himself states that he was informed by a gentleman residing near Hudson, N. Y., that these birds have been observed in that neighborhood in the winter.

Dr. Coues met with these birds in Labrador. The first he saw were in a dense spruce forest. These were very shy, alighting only on the tops of the tallest trees, and flying off with loud harsh screams on his approach. Subsequently, at Rigolet, he found them abundant and very familiar. One or more were always to be seen hopping unconcernedly in the garden-patches around the houses, not in the least disturbed by the near presence of man, and showing no signs of fear even when very closely approached. He describes their voice as a harsh, discordant scream.

Mr. Edward Harris, of Moorestown, N. J., informed Mr. Audubon, that once, when fishing in a canoe in one of the lakes in the interior of Maine, these Jays were so fearless as to light on one end of his boat while he sat in the other, and helped themselves to his bait without taking any notice of him.

A nest of the Canada Jay, found by Mr. Boardman near St. Stephen’s, New Brunswick, measures four and a half inches in diameter and three inches in height. The cavity is about three inches wide and two deep. The nest is woven above a rude platform of sticks and twigs crossed and interlaced, furnishing a roughly made hemispherical base and periphery. Upon this an inner and more artistic nest has been wrought, made of a soft felting of fine mosses closely impacted and lined with feathers. The nest contained three eggs.

The egg of the Canada Jay measures 1.20 inches in length, by .82 of an inch in breadth. They are of an oblong-oval shape, and are more tapering at the smaller end than are most of the eggs of this family. The ground-color is of a light gray, with a slightly yellowish tinge over the entire egg, finely marked, more abundantly about the larger end, with points and blotches of slate-color and brown, and faint cloudings of an obscure lilac.

Perisoreus canadensis, var. obscurus, RIDGWAY.

ALASKAN GRAY JAY.

Perisoreus canadensis, COOPER & SUCKLEY, 216.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Chic. Ac. I, 1869, 286 (Alaska).—FINSCH, Abh. Nat. III, 1872, 40 (Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 307.

SP. CHAR. (8,454 Shoalwater Bay, W. T., March 10, 1854; Dr. J. G. Cooper.) Above plumbeous-umber, inclining to grayish-plumbeous on wings and tail; shafts of the dorsal feathers conspicuously white. Whole crown and nape, above the lores and auriculars, sooty-black; separated from the brown of the back by a whitish tint. Forehead (narrowly), nasal tufts, lores, whole lateral and under side of head, with jugulum, pure white, rest of lower parts a duller and more brownish white. Wing, 5.50; tail, 5.30; culmen, .93; tarsus, 1.20. Young (5,904, Shoalwater Bay). Entirely plumbeous-brown, inclining to brownish-white beneath. Dorsal feathers with white shafts, and those of the forehead, crown, and nape, as well as the wing-coverts, with obsolete whitish borders.

This form, as described above, seems to be peculiar to the northwest coast, reaching its extreme development in Washington Territory and Oregon. North of Sitka, and in the Yukon Territory, specimens incline toward the var. canadensis, in broader frontal white, and purer plumbeous colors.

HABITS. Dr. Cooper met with this variety at the mouth of the Columbia River in March in small scattered flocks, industriously seeking insects and seeds among the spruce-trees, occasionally whistling in a loud melodious tone like that of the Cardinal Grosbeak. He also states that the notes of this bird differ much from the other Jays in being clear and musical, and they sometimes show a considerable variety of song.

This Jay, Mr. Lord states, is so familiar and confiding, and so fond of being near the habitations of man, that the settlers never harm it. In the cold weather he has seen it hop by the fire, ruffle up its feathers and warm itself without the least fear, keeping a sharp lookout for crumbs, and looking so beseechingly with its glittering gray eyes, that no one could refuse such an appeal for a stray morsel. It winters in British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

Perisoreus canadensis, var. capitalis, BAIRD.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN GRAY JAY.

SP. CHAR. (61,084, Henry’s Fork, Wyoming Territory, F. V. Hayden.) Above fine light bluish-plumbeous, becoming much lighter on the anterior portion of the back; tertials, secondaries, wing-coverts, primaries, and tail-feathers passing into whitish terminally, on the latter forming quite broad and distinct tips. A nuchal patch of a slightly darker tint than the back, and separated from it by the hoary whitish of the anterior dorsal region. Whole of the head (except the nuchal patch), with the anterior lower parts, as far as the breast, pure white; rest of lower parts ashy-white, becoming gradually more ashy posteriorly. Wing, 5.80; tail, 6.00; culmen, 1.00. Young (18,440, Fort Benton, April 23, J. A. Mullan). Generally ashy-plumbeous, with a decided bluish cast to wings and tail; orbital region, lores, forehead, and nasal tufts blackish; crown, a broad space below the eye from the bill across the auriculars, with the middle of the abdomen, pale hoary-ashy. Wings and tail as in the adult.

This race, very different from the two styles found to the westward and eastward of it, is peculiar to Rocky Mountain regions, and apparently only occurring south of the northern boundary of the United States. A very large series of specimens, brought in at various times from numerous localities, substantiate the constancy of the characters pointed out above.

Genus PSILORHINUS, RÜPPELL.

Psilorhinus, RÜPPELL, Mus. Senck. 1837, 188. (Type, Pica morio, WAGLER.)

[Line drawing: Psilorhinus morio. 4114]

CHAR. Color very dull brown above. Bill very stout, compressed, without notch; higher than broad at the nostrils; culmen curved from the base. Nostrils rounded; the anterior extremity rounded off into the bill; not covered by bristles, but fully exposed. Tail rather longer than the wings, graduated; the lateral feather three fourths the longest; secondaries and tertials nearly as long as the primaries. Legs stout and short, not equal to the head, and little longer than the bill from base.

This genus embraces Jays of large size and very dull plumage. The thick bill, with the much curved culmen, the moderate tail, and the open nostrils, may serve to distinguish it from its allies. The nostril is very large, and its anterior portion is bevelled off to a greater degree than in any genus, except in Calocitta. This last-mentioned genus has the same form of bill and of nostrils, but the head has a long recurved crest; the tail is twice as long as the wings; the lateral feather nearly half the middle; the lateral tarsal plates scutellate for the inferior half, etc.

In the shape of the bill and the shortness of the primaries, compared with the broad tertials and secondaries, there is much resemblance to Xanthoura. The nostrils are, however, uncovered, the legs much stouter and shorter, being shorter than the head instead of longer; the tail-feathers are broader, etc.

Psilorhinus morio, GRAY.

BROWN JAY.

Pica morio, WAGLER, Isis, 1829, VII, 751.—IB. Isis, 1831, 527.—Voyage de la Favorite, V, 1839, 54 (said to have been killed at San Francisco, Cal., by Botta). Psilorhinus morio, GRAY, List, genera, 1841, 51.—BONAP. Consp. 1850, 381.—CAB. Mus. Hein. 1851, 226.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 592, pl. lxviii, f. 1, 2. “Pica fuliginosa, LESSON, Traite d’Orn. 1831, 333.” Psilorhinus mexicanus, RÜPPELL, Mus. Senck, 1837, pl. xi, f. 2.

SP. CHAR. Tail much graduated; the lateral feathers about two inches shortest. Second quill equal to the secondaries; third and fourth longest. General color dark smoky-brown, becoming almost black on the head; the breast brownish-gray; nearly white about the anus; under tail-coverts tinged with brown; the exposed portion of the tail with a decided gloss of blue; bill and feet, in some specimens yellow, in others black. Length, 16.00; wing, 8.00; tail. 8.25; tarsus. 1.80.

HAB. Rio Grande Valley, north-eastern Mexico, southward. Cordova (SCL. 1856, 300); ? Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 22); Honduras (SCL. II, 113); Costa Rica (CABAN. J. 1861, 83); Vera Cruz, hot and temperate regions (SUMICH. Mem. Bost. Soc. I, 554).

The difference in the color of the bill appears to be independent of sex. The feet of the yellow-billed birds are not of the same pure yellow.

The Psilorhinus mexicanus of Rüppell is described as having white tips to the tail-feathers; of these there is no trace in the adult specimens, male and female, from the Rio Grande, before us. He speaks of a supposed young bird sent from Tamaulipas, by Lindheimer, as being without these white tips.

A series of specimens of this species exhibits considerable diversities. Some skins from Mirador, Mex., not far from Vera Cruz, perhaps best represent the species as first described by Wagler. In these the head and neck are sooty-brown, becoming lighter on the jugulum and on the back. The wings and tail show a trace of dull bluish. In No. 23,915 the under parts are sooty-gray, the bill and legs black; in 23,916 the colors are similar, with a fulvous tinge on the breast, the bill and feet yellow. In both the under surface of tail is brown to the end. In 23,917 the under parts, from breast to crissum inclusive, with the tibiæ, are brownish-white, the tail-feathers (excepting the two median) tipped with white for over an inch, the bill and feet black. This one also has an obscure dull bluish wash or patch along the feathers of the ramus of lower jaw not observed in other specimens.

The specimens collected by Lieutenant Couch, and described in the Pacific Railroad Report are considerably smaller, and exhibit other differences which may prove of specific importance. In this case they will appropriately bear Rüppell’s name of P. mexicanus.

HABITS. This is a Mexican species, occasionally extending its movements as far north as the valley of the Rio Grande, and probably crossing our lines into Texas, although of this there is as yet no positive evidence.

Specimens of this species were procured by Lieutenant Couch at Boquillo, San Diego, and at China, in north-eastern Mexico, and were found by him living in forests of high trees. It is Jay-like in its habits, being decidedly gregarious, and having harsh and loud notes. Though making more noise than any other bird in the neighborhood, if one of their number is brought down by the discharge of a gun, the noise hushes them at once, and the rest move off in perfect silence.

Mr. Sumichrast, in his paper on the Distribution of the Birds of Vera Cruz, states that this species abounds in both the hot and the temperate regions of that department, and, indeed, the greater portions of Vera Cruz. He speaks of it as a bird well known and generally detested on account of its troublesome and noisy habits. It is found everywhere except in the alpine region, and it does not appear ever to go beyond a vertical elevation of 4,500 feet. This gentleman has been assured that the bird never makes any nest of its own, but invariably lays its eggs in those belonging to other birds. He does not so state, but we infer that he means to convey the idea that this Jay appropriates the nests of other birds in which to hatch its own young, not that, like the Cowbird, it leaves its eggs to be brought up by strangers.

This Jay was met with by Mr. G. C. Taylor at Taulevi, in Honduras; and from that place eastward, as far as the Atlantic, he found it very common. It was generally seen or heard shrieking in the bushes by the roadsides. It was also found by Mr. Salvin to occur on the eastern road between Quiriqua and Iguana, on the road to Guatemala.

Mr. Joseph Leyland found this species common both in Honduras and the Belize. It occurred in small flocks, which were very noisy, and annoyed the hunter by always giving the alarm.

FAMILY TYRANNIDÆ.—TYRANT FLYCATCHERS.

PRIMARY CHARACTERS. Primaries ten. Bill in typical forms broad, triangular, much depressed, abruptly decurved and notched at tip, with long bristles along gape. Tarsi with scutellæ extending round the outer face of tarsus from the front to back; sometimes divided on the outer side. Bill with culmen nearly as long as the head, or shorter; straight to near the tip, then suddenly bent down into a conspicuous hook, with a notch behind it; tip of lower jaw also notched. Commissure straight to near the notch; gonys slightly convex. Nostrils oval or rounded, in the anterior extremity of the nasal groove, and more or less concealed by long bristles which extend from the posterior angle of the jaws along the base of the bill, becoming smaller, but reaching nearly to the median line of the forehead. These bristles with lateral branches at the base. Similar bristles are mixed in the loral feathers and margin the chin. Tarsi short, generally less than middle toe, completely enveloped by a series of large scales, which meet near the posterior edge of the inner side, and are separated either by naked skin or by a row of small scales. Sometimes a second series of rather large plates is seen on the posterior face of the tarsus, these, however, usually on the upper extremity only. Basal joint of middle toe united almost throughout to that of the outer toe, but more than half free on the inner side; outer lateral toe rather the longer. Wings and tail variable; first quill always more than three fourths the second. The outer primaries sometimes attenuated near the tip.

The primary characters given above will serve to distinguish the North American Tyrannidæ from their allies; the essential features consisting in the peculiarity of the scales of the tarsus and the ten primaries. In the Sylvicolidæ there are species as truly “flycatching,” and with a depressed bristly bill, but the nine (not ten) primaries, and the restriction of the scales to the anterior face of the tarsus, instead of extending entirely round the outer side, will readily separate them.

The relationships of the Tyrannidæ are closest to the Cotingidæ. These last differ mainly in having the tarsus more or less reticulated, or covered in part at least with small angular scales, instead of continuous broad ones; and in the greater adhesion of the toes. The legs are shorter, and the body broader and more depressed. The bill is less abundantly provided with bristles, and the species do not appear to be strictly flycatchers, feeding more on berries and on stationary insects and larvæ, rather than capturing them on the wing. Two species of this family, Hadrostomus affinis[62] and Pachyramphus major,[63] were introduced into the Birds of North America, from specimens collected by Lieutenant Couch in the valley of the Rio Grande, not far from the border of the United States, but as they have not yet been detected within our limits, we have concluded to omit them in the present work.

The bird fauna of America may be said to have one of its chief features in the great number and variety of its Tyrannidæ, the family being strictly a New World one. Nearly every possible diversity of form is exhibited by different members; the size, however, usually varying from that of our common Robin to that of the Kinglet, our smallest bird with exception of the Humming-Bird. Of the numerous subfamilies, however, only one, the Tyranninæ proper, belongs to North America, and will be readily distinguished from other of our land birds by the family characters given at the head of this article, and which, as drawn up, apply rather to the subfamily than to the Tyrannidæ generally.

The North American species of the Tyranninæ may, for our present purposes, be divided into Tyranni and Tyrannuli. The former are large, generally with bright color, pointed wings, with attenuated primaries and a colored crest in the middle of the crown. The others are plainer, smaller, without colored crest; the primaries not attenuated.

The genera of our Flycatchers may be arranged as follows:—

TYRANNI. Size large; colors generally brilliant; crown with a brightly colored crest, usually concealed; outer primaries abruptly contracted or attenuated near the tip; upper scales of tarsus usually continuing round on the outside and behind. Nest in trees, very bulky, containing much downy material; eggs white or pinkish, with ovate dots of rich brown, of various shades.

Milvulus. Tail excessively forked and lengthened; more than twice as long as the wings.

Tyrannus. Tail moderate; nearly even or slightly forked; less than the wings.

TYRANNULI. Size generally small; colors usually plain; crown without any colored crest concealed by the tips of the feathers; primaries normal; scales of the upper part of the tarsus usually continuing only to the middle of the outer face, and a second series opposite to them behind.

1. Tail lengthened; about equal to the wings, which reach scarcely to its middle.

Myiarchus. Tarsus equal to the middle toe, which is decidedly longer than the hinder one. Tail even or rounded. Throat pale ash, rest of lower parts yellow generally, the primaries edged with rufous, and inner webs of tail-feathers with more or less of the same color. Nest in a cavity of a tree, of loose material; eggs whitish, with intricate tangled lines and streaks of dark brown, the general effect salmon-color.

Sayornis. Tarsus rather longer than the middle toe, which is scarcely longer than the hind toe. Tail slightly forked. Bill very narrow. No light orbital ring, nor distinct bands on wings; both mandibles black. Nest attached to rocks or parts of buildings, very compact and bulky, containing much mud in its composition; eggs pure white, immaculate, or with very minute sparse dots near larger end.

2. Tail decidedly shorter than the wings, which reach beyond its middle. Tarsus shorter than the middle toe.

Contopus. Hind toe much longer than the lateral. Tail considerably forked. Wings long, pointed; much longer than the tail, reaching beyond the middle of the latter; first quill about equal to the fourth. Bill broad. Color olive-gray, and white, sometimes with a yellowish tinge beneath. Lower mandible pale-colored. Nest saucer-shaped, compact, and very small, saddled very securely upon a thick branch; eggs cream-colored, with a zone of lilac and rich brown blotches round the larger end.

3. Tail shorter than the wings, as in the last. Tarsus considerably longer than the middle toe; hind toe much longer than lateral. Tail nearly even, sometimes slightly rounded, but little shorter than the wings; first primary much shorter than the fourth.

Empidonax. Head moderately crested; tail about even. Bristles of bill reaching about half-way to tip. Legs stout. A conspicuous light orbital ring, and distinct bands on the wing. More or less tinged with sulphur-yellow on lower parts. Nest variously constructed, deeply cup-shaped, compact or loose, entirely of either grassy or fibrous and downy material, and fixed to slender twigs or lodged in a crotch between thick branches; eggs white, immaculate, or with blotches of brown round larger end.

Mitrephorus. Head decidedly crested. Tail forked. Bristles of bill reaching nearly to tip. Legs very weak and slender. Beneath more or less tinged with fulvous or ochraceous.

Pyrocephalus. Head with a full crest. Tarsus but little longer than the middle toe; hind toe not longer than the lateral. Tail broad, even; first quill shorter than the fifth. Beneath, with whole crown bright red (except in P. obscurus). Female very different, lacking the red, except posteriorly beneath, and with the breast obsoletely streaked.

[62] Hadrostomus affinis. Platypsaris affinis, ELLIOT, Ibis, 1859, 394, pl. xiii. Pachyramphus aglaiæ, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 164, pl. xlvii, f. 1.—IB. Rep. Mex. Bound. II, Birds, 7, pl. xix, f. 1. Hadrostomus aglaiæ, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. II, 85 (Xalapa).—IB. Journ. 1861, 252.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1864, 176 (City Mex.). Hab. Northern Mexico, Jalapa, Nicaragua (SCL. Catalogue, p. 240); Yucatan (LAWRENCE).

[63] Pachyramphus major. Bathmidurus major, CAB. Orn. Nat. 1847, I, 246.—CAB. ET HEIN. Mus. Hein. II, 89.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 165, pl. xlvii, f. 2 ♀.—IB. Rep. Mex. Bound. II, Birds, 7, pl. xix, f. 2. Pachyramphus major, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1857, 78; 1864, 176 (City of Mex.). Hab. Mexico and Guatemala.

GENUS MILVULUS, SWAINSON.

Milvulus, SWAINSON, Zoöl. Jour. III, 1827, 165. Despotes, REICHENBACH, Avium Syst. Naturale, 1850 (in part).

[Line drawing: Milvulus forficatus (tail abnormal). 7374 ♀]

SP. CHAR. Bill shorter than the head, and nearly equal to the tarsus. Tail nearly twice as long as the wing, excessively forked; the middle feathers scarcely half the lateral. First primary abruptly attenuated at the end, where it is very narrow and linear. Head with a concealed crest of red.

This group is distinguished from Tyrannus by the very long tail, but the two species assigned by authors to North America, although agreeing in many respects, differ in some parts of their structure. The peculiarities of coloration are as follows:—

M. forficatus. Whitish-ash above; rump black. Tail-feathers rose-white with black tips; shoulders, axillars, and belly light vermilion. Hab. Middle America, and open portions of Texas, Indian Territory, etc.; accidental in New Jersey.

M. tyrannus.[64] Head above and tail black; the latter edged externally with white. Back ashy. Beneath pure white. Hab. Middle America, accidental in Eastern United States.

[64] M. tyrannus, var. violentus (Tyrannus violentus, VIEILL. N. D. XXXV, p. 89. Milvulus v., SCL. Catal. Am. B. 1862, 237), is the South American race of this species. It is exceedingly similar, but differs slightly, though constantly, in certain characters. We have not at present the means of comparing the two.

Milvulus tyrannus, BON.

FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER.

Muscicapa tyrannus, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 325. Milvulus tyrannus, BONAP. Geog. List, 1838.—AUDUBON, Synopsis, 1839, 38.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 196, pl. lii.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 168.—CABAN. Journ. 1861, 251.—SCL. List, 1862, 237.—FINSCH, P. Z. S. 1870, 572 (Trinidad; considers violentus, tyrannus, and monachus as identical). Despotes tyrannus, BONAP. Comptes Rendus, 1854, 87. Tyrannus savana, VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 72, pl. xliii.—SWAINSON, Mon. Ty. Shrikes; Quarterly Jour. XX, Jan. 1826, 282. Muscicapa savana, BONAP. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 1, pl. i, f. 1.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 387, pl. clxviii. Milvulus savanus, GRAY, List, 1841. Tyrannus milvulus, NUTTALL, Man., (2d ed.,) I, 1840, 307. Fork-tailed Flycatcher, PENNANT, LATHAM. Tyran a queue fourchue, BUFFON, pl. enl. 571.

SP. CHAR. Outer four primaries abruptly attenuated at the end, the sides of the attenuated portion parallel. Second and third quills longest; fourth little shorter, and not much exceeding the first. Tail very deeply forked; the external feather linear, and twice as long as the head and body alone. Top and sides of the head glossy black. Rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail almost black; the outer web of outer tail-feather yellowish-white for more than the basal half; rest of upper parts ash-gray. Under parts generally pure white. Wings dark brown; the outer primary and tertials edged with white. Crown with a concealed patch of yellow. Length, 14.00; wing, 4.75; tail, 10.00; depth of fork, 7.00. Young. No colored patch on crown; wing-coverts (including the lesser) and tail-feathers, with their upper coverts, bordered with rusty ochraceous. Black of head, tail, etc., duller than in adult.

HAB. Mexico to South America. Accidental in the United States. (New Jersey, Kentucky, and Mississippi, AUDUBON.)

This species claims a place in the fauna of the United States on account of two specimens captured in New Jersey, at long intervals, and one or two seen by Mr. Audubon in the southwest. It is, however, hardly proper to include it in our work on so slight a basis, and we only retain it for the purpose of referring to the notice of it by Mr. Audubon.

HABITS. The Fork-tailed Flycatcher is of purely accidental occurrence in the United States. Two specimens, taken at long intervals, are said to have been captured in the United States. One of these was shot by Mr. Audubon, in June, 1832, near the city of Camden, N. J. It was first observed flying over a meadow, in pursuit of insects. It afterwards alighted on the top of a small detached tree, when it was secured. The bird appeared to have lost its way, was unsuspicious, and paid no attention when approached. On the wing, it seemed to make use of its long tail whenever it sought to suddenly turn in pursuit of its prey. On the ground, it vibrated its tail in the manner of a Sparrow-Hawk.

When the bird fell to the ground severely wounded, it uttered a sharp squeak, which it repeated, accompanied by a smart clicking of the bill, when Mr. Audubon approached it. It lived only a few moments, and from this specimen he made his drawing.

Several years previous to this, one of these birds had been shot near Henderson, Ky., but it was so far decayed when given to Mr. Audubon that it could not be preserved. It had been obtained among the Barrens late in October. Near Natchez, Miss., in August, 1822, Mr. Audubon was confident he saw two others of this species. They were high in the air, and were twittering in the manner of a Kingbird. He was, however, unable to secure them.

Another straggler was obtained near Bridgton, N. J., early in December. From this specimen was made the engraving in Bonaparte’s Ornithology. It was given to Titian Peale by Mr. J. Woodcraft of that place.

This Flycatcher is a resident in tropical South America from Guiana to La Plata, and in its habits resembles the swallow-tailed species of our southern fauna. It is said to be a solitary bird, remaining perched on the limb of a tree, from which, from time to time, it darts after passing insects; while standing, it is said to vibrate its long tail in the manner of the European Wagtail. It also occasionally utters a twitter not unlike the common note of the Kingbird. Besides insects, this bird also feeds on berries, as the bird obtained near Bridgton had its stomach distended with the fruit of the poke-weed.

This species, according to Sumichrast, is found abundantly in winter in the savannas of the hot lands of Vera Cruz, and occurs to the height of about two thousand feet. He is not aware of its being resident.

Mr. Leyland found this species frequenting Old River and the pine ridges of Belize. They were also plentiful on the flats near Peten, and were occasionally found at Comayagua and Omoa, Honduras.

Mr. C. W. Wyatt met with this Flycatcher in Colombia, South America, on the savanna in the neighborhood of Aquachica. When at Ocaña, he used to see them congregated in considerable numbers just before sunset, whirling round high up in the air, and darting down like rockets to the ground. He only found it frequenting the open part of the country, and he never met with it at a greater elevation than five thousand feet.

An egg of this species obtained by Dr. Baldamus, from Cayenne, exhibits a strong resemblance to the egg of the common Kingbird. It has a clear white ground, and is spotted with deep and prominent marking of red and red-brown. They are of an oblong-oval shape, are tapering at one end, and measure .90 by .68 of an inch.

Milvulus forficatus, SWAIN.

SCISSOR-TAIL; SWALLOW-TAIL FLYCATCHER.

Muscicapa forficata, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 931.—VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 71.—STEPHENS, in Shaw’s Zoöl. X, II, 413, pl. iii.—BONAP. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 15, pl. ii, f. 1.—AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 426, pl. ccclix, f. 3. _Tyrannus forficatus_, SAY, Long’s Exped., II, 1823, 224.—NUTTALL’S Manual, I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 309. Milvulus forficatus, “SWAINS.” RICH. List, 1837.—AUDUBON, Synopsis, 1839, 38.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 197, pl. liii.—CABAN. Mus. Hein. II, 79.—SCL. List, 1862, 237.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 169.—IB. Mex. B. II, Zoöl. 7.—HEERM. X, c. p. 11. Tyrannus mexicanus, STEPHENS, Shaw, Gen. Zoöl. Birds, XIII, II, 1826, 135. Moucherolle a queue fourchue du Mexique, BUFFON, pl. enl. 677. Bird of Paradise of the Texans.

SP. CHAR. Wing with the outer primary only abruptly attenuated, and narrowly linear (for about .85 of an inch); the second but slightly emarginate; second quill longest; first and third equal. Tail very deeply forked, the lateral feathers twice as long as the body, all narrow and linear or subspatulate. Top and sides of the head very pale ash; the back a little darker, and faintly tinged with light brick-red; under parts nearly pure white, tinged towards the tail with light vermilion, rather more rose on the under wing-coverts; a patch on the side of the breast and along the fore-arm dark vermilion-red. Tail-feathers rosy white, tipped at the end for two or three inches with black. Rump dark brown, turning to black on the coverts. Wings very dark brown; the coverts and quills, excepting the primaries (and including the outer of these), edged with whitish. Crown with a concealed patch of white, having some orange-red in the centre. Length, 13.00; wing, 4.75; tail, 8.50; depth of fork, 5.80.

HAB. Middle America, from Panama northward; prairies and oak barrens of Texas, Indian Territory, and occasionally Southwest Missouri and Kansas. Accidental in Eastern States (New Jersey, TURNBULL; District of Columbia? COUES); Xalapa (SCL. 1857, 204); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 121; Mus. S. I.); Honduras (SCL. II, 114); Costa Rica (CABAN. J., 1861, 252); Vera Cruz, hot and temperate regions (SUM. M. B. S. I, 556).

This exquisitely beautiful and graceful bird is quite abundant on the prairies of Southern Texas, and is everywhere conspicuous among its kindred species. It is usually known as the Scissor-tail from the habit of closing and opening the long feathers of the tail like the blades of a pair of scissors. The adult female is very similar, though rather smaller. The young is not conspicuously different, only lacking the concealed patch of the head.

HABITS. The Swallow-tailed Flycatcher appears to be a common species from Central Texas to the Rio Grande, and thence throughout Mexico to Central America, as far south at least as Guatemala. It is also found in the Indian Territory, where it breeds, specimens of the nest and eggs having been obtained at the Kioway Agency by Dr. E. Palmer.

It was found very plentiful at Langui, in Honduras, by Mr. G. C. Taylor, and also in fewer numbers in other localities. In the evening, just before roosting time, they were in the habit of assembling on the tops of certain favorite trees, where they remained until nearly dark. They then all went off to the woods. He generally met with them on open ground, not much encumbered by trees or brushwood.

Mr. Dresser states that he found this very graceful bird quite abundant at Matamoras and in Western Texas, where it is known by the name of “Texan Bird of Paradise.” He found it as far east as the river Guadaloupe. It arrives, he states, in the neighborhood of San Antonio, late in March, and remains until the middle or latter end of October. It breeds abundantly near San Antonio, building its nest in a mesquite or other tree, and lays from three to four eggs, which, as he states, are pure white, blotched with large spots of a dark red color.

He adds that these birds are of a quarrelsome and fearless disposition, rarely brooking intruders near their homes. During the breeding-season Mr. Dresser has often, when travelling, stopped to admire four or five of them fighting on the wing. They show their long tail-feathers and the rich scarlet color under their wings to the fullest advantage. After passing Guadaloupe River, he saw none of these birds to the eastward, though he was told they have occasionally been seen on Galveston Island.

This Flycatcher was met with at Eagle Pass, in Lower Texas, and in Tamaulipas by Mr. Clark and Lieutenant Couch, in the Mexican Boundary Survey. None were found occurring west of the valley of the Rio Pecos. Mr. Clark states that he always saw them either following one another through the air, or perched upon some solitary twig. In their gyrations the scissors were always more or less expanded, suggesting the idea of balancers. Their nests were built of sticks, lined on the inside, though not very softly, with grass, and were placed almost invariably on dry limbs of the mesquite. They contained from three to five eggs, and, what was quite remarkable, more than one pair always seemed to have an interest in the same nest, over which they were all very watchful, and gave proofs of their courage by darting at the intruders. He describes their notes as short and sharp, without much variation, and they can be heard at quite a distance. The Mexicans imagine that this Flycatcher lives on the brains of other birds.

Lieutenant Couch describes the Scissor-tail as shy, but of a very lively disposition. Usually four or more are seen in company, and seem to prefer the thinly wooded prairies to close thickets. In beauty, Lieutenant Couch considers it the queen of all the birds found in Northern Tamaulipas. This superiority is not owing so much to the brilliancy of its plumage, for in that it is excelled by several species, but to the inimitable grace and charm of its flight. Rising from the topmost branch of some acacia, it seems to float, rather than to fly; then descending perpendicularly, it retakes its position, uttering its usual note. He did not see it west of the Cadereita. Dr. Kennerly, in his march from the Gulf of Mexico into Western Texas, frequently met with these Flycatchers along his route. He usually saw them in the open prairie, or among the mesquite-bushes. When perched, they were generally on the top of a bush or a tall weed, and their tails were constantly in motion. When they darted off after some passing insect, they usually circled around, displaying the singular bifurcation of their tail, but seldom alighting again on the same bush. It was occasionally seen on the open prairie, flying for a long distance near the earth, as if in search of insects.

In Vera Cruz this species is an inhabitant of the hot lands. A few individuals ascend, though very rarely, to the height of the city of Orizaba, or about 3,700 feet.

Mr. Nuttall states that he met with this Flycatcher rather common along the banks of the Red River, near the confluence of the Kiamesha. He again met them, even more frequently, near the Great Salt River of Arkansas, in August. They seemed to be preying upon grasshoppers.

Dr. Woodhouse not only found this species abundant in Texas, in the vicinity of San Antonio, but in the Indian Territory also it was quite common, particularly near the Cross Timbers. He found them breeding in the beginning of the month of July, on the Great Prairie. Its nest was built on the horizontal branch of a small scrub-oak, about six feet from the ground, and was composed of coarse dry grass and sticks. It contained four young birds nearly able to fly. On his approach the female flew from the nest to a bush near by. The male bird flew to a great height above him, circling round in the air, apparently watching his movements, and at the same time uttering a coarse scolding chirp.

Dr. Gideon Lincecum, of Texas, writes that the Scissor-tail Flycatchers have greatly increased in numbers in that State since 1848. They are severe hunters of insects, and make great havoc among honey-bees. They are exclusively prairie birds. He adds that they construct their nests far out on the top branches of the live-oak or any other lone tree on the prairies. They seem to be a very playful bird, and delight in shooting rapidly upwards, cutting the air with their strong wings with such force that the sound may be heard to the distance of three hundred yards or more. Their notes are harsh and inharmonious. They leave Texas late in autumn, and return again about the first of April. The resounding strokes of their wings and their oft-repeated cries are heard just before the dawn of day. They usually have but three eggs.

A single individual of Milvulus, and supposed to be one of this species, was seen by Mr. C. Drexler, May 6, 1861, but was not obtained, in the vicinity of Washington. Another bird of this species is mentioned by Mr. Abbott as having been taken near Trenton, N. J., April 15, 1872. It was a male bird in full health and feather. Its stomach was found to be full of small coleoptera, insects’ eggs, flies, etc.

The eggs of this species vary greatly in size, from .92 by .75 to .80 by .60 of an inch. They are in shape a rounded oval, and tapering at one end. The ground-color is white, marked with a few very large dark red spots, and occasionally of an obscure purple.

GENUS TYRANNUS, CUVIER.

Tyrannus, CUVIER, Leçons Anat. Comp. 1799, 1800 (AGASSIZ).

[Line drawing: Tyrannus carolinensis. 1513]

GEN. CHAR. Tail nearly even, or moderately forked; rather shorter than the wings; the feathers broad, and widening somewhat at the ends. Wings long and pointed; the outer primaries rather abruptly attenuated near the end, the attenuated portion not linear, however. Head with a concealed patch of red on the crown.

The species of this genus are especially characterized by their long, attenuated primaries, their moderately forked or nearly even tail, and the concealed colored crest in the crown. Their affinities are nearest to Milvulus, from which the tail, shorter than the wings, instead of twice as long, or more, will always serve as a point of distinction. The attenuation of the primary differs in being less abrupt, and not truly linear, sloping gradually, and not bounded behind by a notch. We are unable to appreciate any other differences of importance.

The character and extent of the attenuation of the primaries, the depth of the fork of the tail, with the size of the legs and bill, all vary considerably, and may, perhaps, serve as ground for further subdivisions. The bill, in particular, varies much in size in the North American species, from that of T. carolinensis, where the culmen is but little more than half the head, to that of T. dominicensis (genus Melittarchus of Cabanis), where it is decidedly longer than the head, and almost as stout as that of Saurophagus.

The North American species of Tyrannus (with their nearest Mexican allies) may be arranged by colors, accordingly as they are white beneath or yellow, in the following manner:—

A. Under parts whitish, without any shade of yellow. A faint grayish-plumbeous pectoral band.

1. T. carolinensis. Tail slightly rounded. Bill much shorter than the head. Above black, shading into dark plumbeous on the back. Tail abruptly and broadly margined and tipped with pure white. (Tyrannus.) Hab. Whole of North America, north to the British Provinces, and south to Panama. Rare in the Western Province of North America.

2. T. dominicensis. Tail moderately forked. Bill longer than the head. Above gray; the tail and wings brownish. The edges and tips of the tail narrowly margined with soiled white. (Melittarchus.) Hab. West Indies, New Granada, Panama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

B. Above ashy-olive, becoming purer ash on the head. Tail brown or black. Beneath yellow; the chin paler; the breast strongly shaded with olivaceous or ashy. (Laphyctes.)

a. Tail nearly black; the outer edges of the outer webs of the feathers with the fibres united closely throughout, and colored similarly to the rest of the feathers; beneath sulphur-yellow.

3. T. verticalis. Tail slightly forked; external feather with the entire outer web and the outer half of the shaft abruptly yellowish-white. Pectoral band pale ashy, lighter than the back. Hab. Western Province of United States.

4. T. vociferans. Tail nearly even or slightly rounded; external feather with the shaft brown; the outer edge only of the outer web obscurely yellowish-white, and all the feathers fading into paler at the tip. Throat and breast broadly tinged with dark ashy-olive like the back. Hab. Plains and southern Middle Province of United States, south into Middle America.

b. Tail brown, scarcely darker than the wings; outer edges of the outer webs of the tail-feathers olivaceous like the back, in contrast with the brown; the fibres loosened externally; shafts of tail-feathers white beneath. Beneath bright gamboge-yellow.

5. T. melancholicus.[65] Tail quite deeply forked (.70 of an inch), brownish-black, the lighter edgings obsolete, and those on wings indistinct. Throat ashy. Hab. South America var. melancholicus.

Tail moderately forked (.30 of an inch), grayish-brown, the light edges conspicuous, as are also those of the wings. Throat white. Hab. Middle America, north to southern boundary of United States var. couchi.

In the Birds of North America a supposed new species, T. couchi, was mentioned as coming so close to the boundary line of the United States in Texas as to warrant its introduction into our fauna. We have, however, concluded to give in the present work nothing but what has actually been found within its prescribed limits.

[65] Tyrannus melancholicus, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. xxxv, 1819, 84.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 176.—SCLATER, Catal. Am. Birds, 1862, 235. Hab. South America. A more northern race scarcely distinguishable (Panama, Costa Rica, etc.), separated as T. satrapa, LICHT.

Tyrannus carolinensis, BAIRD.

KINGBIRD; BEE MARTIN.

? Lanius tyrannus, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 136. This belongs to the Cuban T. matutinus, according to Bonaparte. _Muscicapa tyrannus_, (BRISSON?) WILSON, Am. Orn. I, 1808, 66, pl. xiii.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 403; V, 1839, 420, pl. lxxix.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 204, pl. lvi. Lanius tyrannus, var. γ, carolinensis, δ, ludovicianus, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 302. Muscicapa rex, BARTON, Fragments N. H. Penna. 1799, 18. Tyrannus pipiri, VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 73, pl. xliv.—CAB. Journ. Orn. III, 1855, 478.—SCL. List, 1862, 236. Tyrannus intrepidus, VIEILLOT, Galerie Ois. I, 1824, 214, pl. cxxxiii.—SWAINSON, Mon. Ty. Shrikes, Quart. Jour. 1826, 274. Muscicapa animosa, LICHT. Verz. Doubl. 1823, No. 558. Gobe Mouche de la Caroline, BUFFON, Ois. V, 281, enl. pl. 676. Tyrannus leucogaster, STEPHENS, Shaw, Gen. Zoöl. XIII, II, 1826, 132. Tyrannus carolinensis, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 171.—CABAN. Mus. Hein. II, 79.—LORD, Pr. R. A. Inst. IV, 64, 113.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 167.—SAMUELS, 128.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 311.

SP. CHAR. Two, sometimes three, outer primaries abruptly attenuated at the end. Second quill longest; third little shorter; first rather longer than fourth, or nearly equal. Tail slightly rounded. Above dark bluish-ash. The top and sides of the head to beneath the eyes bluish-black. A concealed crest on the crown vermilion in the centre, white behind, and before partially mixed with orange. Lower parts pure white, tinged with pale bluish-ash on the sides of the throat and across the breast; sides of the breast and under the wings similar to, but rather lighter than, the back. Axillaries pale grayish-brown tipped with lighter. The wings dark brown, darkest towards the ends of the quills; the greater coverts and quills edged with white, most so on the tertials; the lesser coverts edged with paler. Upper tail-coverts and upper surface of the tail glossy black, the latter very dark brown beneath; all the feathers tipped, and the exterior margined externally with white, forming a conspicuous terminal band about .25 of an inch broad. Length, 8.50; wing, 4.65; tail, 3.70; tarsus, .75.

HAB. Eastern North America to Rocky Mountains. Occasional in various parts of the Western Province (Washington Territory, Salt Lake Valley, Truckee River, Nevada, etc.). South to Panama. Oaxaca, lowlands, March (SCL. P. Z. S. 1858, 302); Honduras (MOORE, P. Z. S. 1859, 55); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis I, 120); Cuba (CAB. J. III, 476; GUNDL. Rep. 1865, 239, “T. pipiri”); Panama, (Mus. S. I.; LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VII, 295); Greytown, Nic. (LAWR. Ann. VIII, 183); East of San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 472; breeds); Upper Amazon, Peru, Nauta (SCL. and SALV. P. Z. S. 1866, 189); Vera Cruz, hot region, resident (SUMICHRAST, M. B. S. I, 557).

The young of the year is similar; the colors duller, the concealed colored patch on the crown wanting. The tail more rounded; the primaries not attenuated.

Specimens vary in the amount of white margining the wing-feathers; the upper tail-coverts are also margined sometimes with white.

HABITS. The common Kingbird or Bee Martin of North America is found throughout the continent, from Texas and Florida, on the south, as far to the north as the 57th parallel of north latitude. Westward, north of the 44th parallel, it is found from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but south of this it has not been found west of the Rocky Mountains. It is included by Dr. Cooper among the birds of California, but I am not aware that it has ever been taken within the limits of that State. Mr. Allen regards the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains its extreme western limit; but Mr. Ridgway states that this species was met with by him in various portions of the Great Basin, though always in less abundance than the T. verticalis. Among the cottonwoods of the Truckee Valley, in Western Nevada, two or three pairs were seen in July and August. In the fertile Salt Lake Valley it was nearly or quite as common as the T. verticalis, and was also met with in the fertile “parks” of the Wahsatch Mountains.

This species not only has this widely extended area, but is also quite abundant wherever found. It is apparently as abundant throughout Nova Scotia as it is in the State of Florida. Richardson even found it common on the banks of the Saskatchewan, where he traced its northern migrations beyond the 57th parallel of latitude. It was found at the Carlton House early in May, and retired southward in September. It winters in Central and South America, and has been received by Mr. Lawrence from Panama.

Dr. Suckley found this species quite plentiful at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, in Washington Territory, and more sparingly at Puget Sound, where he obtained several specimens. They appeared to shun the dense forests near Puget Sound, but were moderately plentiful in the groves of low oaks, and among the cottonwood-trees fringing the lakes on Nisqually Plains, where, August 5, he obtained a nest with newly fledged young.

Mr. Joseph Leyland found this species near Omoa, in Honduras, migratory. They came in flocks of two or three hundred, but remained only a short time before departing farther south. They flew high, and seemed very wild. This species was also met with, in May, at Playa Vicente, in the low lands of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, by Mr. Boucard, and during the winter months is found throughout Mexico.

No one of our common birds possesses more strongly marked characteristics of manners and habits than this species. Its pugnacious disposition during the breeding-season, the audacious boldness with which it will attack any birds larger than itself, the persistent tenacity with which it will continue these attacks, and the reckless courage with which it will maintain its unequal warfare, are well-known peculiarities of this interesting and familiar species. Its name, Kingbird, is given it on the supposition that it is superior to all other birds in these contests. My own observations lead me to the conclusion that writers have somewhat exaggerated the quarrelsome disposition of this bird. I have never, or very rarely, known it to molest or attack any other birds than those which its own instinct prompts it to drive away in self-defence, such as Hawks, Owls, Eagles, Crows, Jays, Cuckoos, and Grakles. These it will always attack and drive off to quite a distance from their nests. Nothing can be more striking than the intrepidity with which one of these birds will pounce upon and harass birds vastly larger and more powerful than itself. The Kingbird is always prompt to perceive the approach of one of these enemies, and always rushes out to meet it. Mounting in the air high above, it pounces down upon its back, upon which it will even rest, furiously pecking at the exposed flanks of its victim, and only leaving it to descend again and again with the same unrelenting animosity. In these encounters it always comes off conqueror.

Wilson states that his jealous affection for his mate and for his nest and young makes him suspicious of every bird that happens to pass near his residence. But this is not the case in all instances. A pair of these birds nested, in the summer of 1871, and peacefully reared their young, in an apple-tree near my residence, within four feet of the nest of the Baltimore Oriole, and not more than eight or ten feet from the nest of a Robin, all in the same tree. The three pairs were on evident terms of amity and mutual good-will. The male Kingbird kept a sharp lookout for danger from the topmost bough, and seemed to have all under his special guardianship, but showed no disposition to molest or annoy them.

The Purple Martin is said to be the implacable enemy of the Kingbird, and one of the few birds with which the latter maintains an unequal contest. Its superiority in flight gives the former great advantages, while its equal courage and strength render it more than a match. Audubon relates an instance in which the Kingbird was slain in one of these struggles.

Wilson also narrates an encounter, of which he was an eyewitness, between one of this species and a Red-headed Woodpecker, in which the latter, while clinging on the rail of a fence, seemed to amuse itself with the violence of the Kingbird, playing bo-peep with it round the rail, while the latter became greatly irritated, and made repeated but vain attempts to strike at him.

The Kingbird feeds almost exclusively upon winged insects, and consumes a vast number. It is on this account one of our most useful birds, but, unfortunately for its popularity, it is no respecter of kinds, and destroys large numbers of bees. In districts where hives of honey-bees abound, the Kingbird is not in good repute. Wilson suggests that they only destroy the drones, and rarely, if ever, meddle with the working bees. But this discrimination, even if real, is not appreciated by the raisers of bees, who regard this bird as their enemy.

The Kingbirds arrive in Pennsylvania the latter part of April, and in New England early in May, and leave for the South in September. They nest in May, selecting an upper branch, usually of an isolated tree, and often in an exposed situation. Their nests are large, broad, and comparatively shallow, and coarsely, though strongly, made of rude materials, such as twigs, withered plants, bits of rags, strings, etc. These are lined with fine rootlets, horse-hair, and fine grasses.

The Kingbird has no song, but, instead, utters an incessant monotonous succession of twitterings, which vary in sharpness and loudness with the emotions that prompt them.

The flight of the Kingbird when on the hunt for insects is peculiar and characteristic. It flies slowly over the field, with rapid vibrations of the wings, in the manner of Hawks, and soars or seems to float in the air in a manner equally similar. At other times it flies with great rapidity, and dives about in the air in the manner of a Swallow. It also exhibits great power and rapidity of flight when rushing forth to encounter a Hawk or an Eagle.

As they are known occasionally to plunge into the water, and, emerging thence, to resume their seat on a high branch, to dry and dress their plumage, it has been conjectured that they feed on small fish, but this is unsupported by any positive evidence.

Though the Kingbird usually builds in trees, it does not always select such situations. In the summer of 1851, passing over a bridge near the village of Aylesford, in Nova Scotia, I observed a Kingbird fly from a nest built on the projecting end of one of the planks of which the bridge was made. So remarkably exposed a position, open to view, and on a level with and within a few feet of a highway, must be quite unusual.

The eggs of this bird are five, sometimes six, in number, and vary considerably in size. Their ground-color is white with a more or less decided roseate tinge, beautifully spotted with blotches and markings of purple, brown, and red-brown. In some, these are disposed in a confluent crown around the larger end; in others they are irregularly distributed over the entire egg. In length they vary from 1.05 to .86 of an inch, and in breadth from .72 to .70 of an inch.

Tyrannus dominicensis, RICH.

GRAY KINGBIRD.

Tyrannus dominicensis, BRISSON, Ois. II, 1760, 394, pl. xxxviii. fig. 2.—RICH. List, 1837.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 172. Lanius tyrannus, var. β, dominicensis, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 302. Muscicapa dominicensis, AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 392, pl. xlvi.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 201, pl. lv. Melittarchus dominicensis, CABANIS, Journal für Ornith. III, Nov. 1855, 478. Tyrannus griseus, VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 76, pl. xlvi.—SWAINSON, Mon. Shrikes, Quart. Jour. XX, 1826, 276.—BP. Consp. 1850, 192 (Bonaparte makes two species).—SCL. List, 1862, 236. Tyrannus matutinus, VIEILL. De La Sagra, pl. xiv.

SP. CHAR. Bill very large and stout. Tail conspicuously forked. Wings long; the first six quills attenuated abruptly, much longer than the seventh. Tertials much developed, nearly intermediate in length between the longest primaries and the shortest secondary. Above, and on the sides of the head and neck, ash-gray, shaded in places with brown, which forms the middle portion of each feather. Downy portion at the base of each feather above light ash, then light brown, tipped and edged with darker ash-gray. The mottled appearance is caused by the brown showing from under the feathers; the ear-coverts darker. A concealed colored patch on the crown, formed by the base of the feathers, white before and behind, orange in the middle. Lower parts grayish-white, tinged with ash across the breast, deepest anteriorly. Sides of the breast similar to, but lighter than, the back. Under wing-coverts and axillars pale sulphur-yellow. The wings brown, darker to the tips; the secondaries narrowly, the tertials more broadly, edged with dull white. Edges of the coverts paler. Alula dark brown. Tail similar in color to the quills. Upper tail-coverts brown. Bill and feet black. Length, 8.00; wing, 4.65; tail, 4.00; tarsus, .76.

Young. Lesser wing-coverts and upper tail-coverts distinctly bordered with pale ochraceous; tail-feathers bordered all round with a deeper shade of the same. No colored patch on the crown.

HAB. South Carolina coast, accidental; Florida Keys and West Indies; Nicaragua; New Granada; Santa Cruz (NEWTON, Ibis I, 146, eggs); Carthagena, N. G. (CASS. P. A. N. S. 1860, 143); Cuba (CAB. J. III, 478, breeds; GUNDL. Rep. 1865, 238, “Mel. griseus”); Jamaica (GOSSE, B. J. 169, breeds; MARCH, P. A. N. S. 1863, 287); St. Thomas (CASS. P. A. N. S. 1860, 375); Sombrero (LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VIII, 1864, 99, “griseus”); Greytown, Nicar. (LAWR. Ann. 183); Sta. Bartholemy (SUND. 1869, 584); Massachusetts (MAYNARD, B. E. Mass. 1870, 124).

This species, though about the same size as the T. carolinensis, is much more powerfully built, the bill and feet being much stronger, the former considerably longer than the head, and as large as that of Saurophagus sulphuratus, though less compressed.

Specimens from Nicaragua and New Granada appear to be almost perfectly identical with those from Florida and the West Indies, differing only in being just appreciably smaller, which, however, might be expected from their more southern habitat.

HABITS. The Gray Kingbird—the Pipiry Flycatcher of Audubon, or Gray Petchary of Jamaica—is, except in Florida, of scarcely more than occasional occurrence within the limits of the United States. A single specimen has been taken in Massachusetts. This was shot in Lynn, October 23, 1868, and was in immature plumage. The bird was shot on a tree near one of the streets of that city by Mr. Charles Goodall. Mr. Audubon also found these birds quite common on the Florida Keys, almost every Key, however small, having its pair. A pair was observed breeding in the college yard at Charleston, S. C., by Dr. Bachman; and for at least three years in succession they regularly returned each year, and raised two broods in a season. This Flycatcher is abundant in St. Croix, Cuba, Jamaica, and in the other West India Islands. In the first-named locality Mr. Alfred Newton found it one of the most conspicuous and commonest birds over the entire island. Its favorite station, he states, was the top of the spearlike unexpanded frond of a tall mountain-cabbage tree, from which place, in the breeding-season, it darted down to attack almost any animal that passed near. Its favorite object of attack was the Green Heron (Butorides virescens), at which it would make several well-directed swoops, never leaving it until it had driven it into some shelter, when, much pleased with its prowess, it would return to its lookout station and celebrate its victory with cries of triumph. On one occasion Mr. Newton observed a Gray Kingbird pursue a Green Heron out to sea for a quarter of a mile and back. It is described as a very clamorous bird, even when there is apparently no need; taking alarm from the domestic poultry, its oft-repeated notes were heard every morning before the dawn. This noise it continued pertinaciously till sundown. Its food consists of insects, which are caught with great dexterity on the wing. It also feeds very largely on the black berries of a myrtle-leaved parasite that grows abundantly on the orange-trees. The nest is often placed under the fronds or among the spathes of a cocoanut or mountain-cabbage tree, and sometimes in any ordinary situation. It is described as flat in construction and large for the size of the bird, being nearly a foot in diameter, composed of a platform of twigs, in the midst of which is hollowed a cup lined with fine roots. In St. Croix the eggs rarely exceeded three in number, and are spoken of as exceedingly beautiful when fresh, of a delicate creamy white, marked at the larger end with blotches and spots of pink or orange-brown, often disposed in a zone. He found their eggs from May till August.

Mr. Richard Hill, of Spanishtown, Jamaica, in some interesting notes furnished to Mr. Gosse, states that along the seaside savannas of that island migrant flocks of these birds swarm early in September. Numbers then congregate on the trees around the cattle ponds and about the open meadows, pursuing the swarms of insects which fill the air at sundown. These throngs are immediately joined by resident birds of this species, which gather about the same places, and do not return to their usual abodes until the breeding-season is at hand.

The Jamaica bird is not exclusively an insect-feeder, but eats very freely of the sweet wild berries, especially those of the pimento. These ripen in September, and in groves of these this bird may always be found in abundance. By the end of September most of the migrant birds have left the island.

This is among the earliest to breed of the birds of Jamaica. As early as January the mated pair is said to be in possession of some lofty tree, sounding at day-dawn a ceaseless shriek, which is composed of a repetition of three or four notes, sounding like pē-chēē-ry, according to Mr. Hill, and from which they derive their local name. In these localities they remain until autumn, when they quit these haunts and again congregate about the lowland ponds. In feeding, just before sunset, they usually sit, eight or ten in a row, on some exposed twig, darting from it in pursuit of their prey, and returning to it to devour whatever they have caught. They are rapid in their movements, ever constantly and hurriedly changing their positions in flight. As they fly, they are able to check their speed suddenly, and to turn at the smallest imaginable angle. At times they move off in a straight line, gliding with motionless wings from one tree to another. When one descends to pick an insect from the surface of the water, it has the appearance of tumbling, and, in rising again, ascends with a singular motion of the wings, as if hurled into the air and endeavoring to recover itself.

In the manner in which the male of this species will perch on the top of some lofty tree, and from that vantage-height scream defiance to all around him, and pursue any large bird that approaches, as described by Mr. Hill, all the audacity and courage of our Kingbird is exhibited. At the approach of a Vulture or a Hawk, he starts off in a horizontal line, after rising in the air to the same height as his adversary, and, hovering over him for a moment, descends upon the intruder’s back, rising and sinking as he repeats his attack, and shrieking all the while. In these attacks he is always triumphant.

This Flycatcher is also charged by Mr. Hill with seizing upon the Humming-Birds as they hover over the blossoms in the garden, killing its prey by repeated blows struck on the branch, and then devouring them.

The nest, according to Mr. Hill, is seldom found in any other tree than that of the palm kind. Among the web of fibres around the footstalk of each branch the nest is woven of cotton-wool and grass. The eggs, he adds, are four or five, of an ivory color, blotched with deep purple spots, intermingled with brown specks, the clusters thickening at the greater end. Mr. Gosse, on the contrary, never found the nest in a palm. One, taken from an upper limb of a bitterwood-tree that grew close to a friend’s door, at no great height, was a cup made of the stalks and tendrils of a small passion flower, the spiral tendrils very prettily arranged around the edge, and very neatly and thickly lined with black horse-hair. The other, made in a spondias bush, was a rather loose structure, smaller and less compact, almost entirely composed of tendrils, with no horse-hair, but a few shining black frond-ribs of a fern.

Mr. March states that the migrant birds of this species return to Jamaica about the last of March, gradually disperse, and, like the resident birds, occupy their selected trees in solitary pairs, and immediately set about preparing their nests. At St. Catharine’s the first nest found was on the 14th of April, and the latest in the middle of July. They seldom build in the tree in which they perch, but select a lower tree near it. Some make their nests high, others low, usually at the extremity of a lateral branch. He describes them as loose structures of twigs and the stems of trailing plants, with the cup of grass, horse-hair, and vegetable fibre. The eggs are three, rarely four, of a long oval, with a ground of light cream-color, dashed around the larger end more or less thickly with blotches of burnt sienna, and with cloudings of pale bistre underneath.

Mr. Audubon states that this Flycatcher reaches the Florida Keys about the first of April. He describes their usual flight as performed by a constant flutter of the wings, except when in chase, when they exhibit considerable power and speed. He noticed them pursue larger birds, such as Herons, Crows, Cuckoos, Grakles, and Hawks, following them quite a distance. They did not molest the Doves. They built their nests in a manner similar to the Kingbird, on the horizontal branches of the mangrove, almost invariably on the western side of the tree and of the island. Some were not more than two feet above the water, others were twenty feet. On one of the keys, although of small size, he saw several of their nests, and more than a dozen of the birds living amicably together.

Dr. J. G. Cooper, who visited Florida in the spring of 1859, informed me, by letter, on his return, that when he reached Cape Florida, March 8, none of this species were to be seen on any of the keys. The first he noticed were about the first of May, near Fort Dallas on the mainland. As, however, it rarely appears at this place, he supposes they reached the keys some weeks sooner. About May 14 he found several pairs at the Cape, and, going up the coast to New Smyrna, he found them abundant about the marshy islands. On the first of June, with a companion, he went in a small boat for the express purpose of finding their nests; and, pushing the boat about among the islands which almost filled Mosquito Lagoon, he discovered three in one afternoon. They were all built among the small branches of low dead mangrove-trees, about ten feet from the ground, formed of a loose, open flooring of small twigs, with scarcely any lining of a finer material. One contained four eggs half hatched, another three young and one egg, the third four young just hatched. He preserved one nest and all the eggs, and presented them to the National Museum in Washington. The old birds showed no resentment, and neither came near nor followed him, differing very much in this respect from the fearless and devoted Kingbird. The only notes this bird was heard to utter were loud and harsh rattling cries. Dr. Bachman informed Dr. Cooper that these birds had become quite regular summer visitants of Charleston, where they continued to breed each season. Dr. Cooper saw none away from the Florida coast, and thinks that none go inland.

The eggs of this species measure from 1 to 1.05 inches in length, and from .70 to .72 of an inch in breadth. They are of an oblong oval shape, variously marked with large blotches and smaller spots of purple, red-brown, and a dark purplish-brown. The latter color, in a few cases, is found in large masses, covering nearly a fifth of the entire surface of the egg; not inaptly compared by Mr. Gosse to the sinuous outlines of lands, as represented on a terrestrial globe.

Tyrannus verticalis, SAY.

ARKANSAS FLYCATCHER.

Tyrannus verticalis, SAY, Long’s Exped. II, 1823, 60.—NUTTALL, Man. II, (2d ed.,) 1840, 306.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 173.—SCL. Catal. 1862, 235.—LORD, Pr. R. A. Inst. IV, 113 (Br. Col.).—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 168.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 312. Muscicapa verticalis, BONAP. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 18, pl. xi.—AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 422, pl. ccclix.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 199, pl. liv. Laphyctes verticalis, CABAN. Mus. Hein. II, 1859, 77.—HEERM. X. S, 37.

SP. CHAR. The four exterior quills attenuated very gently at the end, the first most so; third and fourth quills longest, second and fifth successively a little shorter. Tail slightly forked; bill shorter than the head. Crown, sides of head above the eyes, nape, and sides of neck pale lead-color, or ash-gray; a concealed crest on the crown, vermilion in the centre, and yellowish before and behind. Hind neck and back ash-gray, strongly tinged with light olivaceous-green, the gray turning to brown on the rump; upper tail-coverts nearly black, lower dusky; chin and part of ear-coverts dull white; throat and upper part of breast similar to the head, but lighter, and but slightly contrasted with the chin; rest of lower parts, with the under wing-coverts and axillars, yellow, deepening to gamboge on the belly, tinged with olivaceous on the breast. Wing brown, the coverts with indistinct ashy margins; secondaries and tertials edged with whitish; inner webs of primaries whitish towards the base. Tail nearly black above and glossy, duller brownish beneath; without olivaceous edgings. Exterior feather, with the outer web and the shaft, yellowish-white; inner edge of latter brown. Tips of remaining feathers paler. Bill and feet dark brown. Female rather smaller and colors less bright. Length of male, 8.25; wing about 4.50.

HAB. Western North America, from the high Central Plains to the Pacific; Colima, Mexico. Accidental in Eastern States (New Jersey, TURNBULL; Plymton, Maine, Oct. 1865, BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc., X, 1865, 96).

The young bird is, in general, quite similar, with the exception of the usual appearance of immaturity, the colored patch on the crown wanting. In one specimen the first primary only is attenuated, in others none exhibit this character.

A specimen of this bird, shot at Moorestown, N. J., is in the museum of the Philadelphia Academy, but this locality can only be considered as very exceptional.

HABITS. The Arkansas Flycatcher was first discovered by the party in Long’s Expedition in 1823, and described by Mr. Say. It is a bird of western North America, found from the great plains to the Pacific, and only accidentally occurring east. A single specimen is said to have been shot in Moorestown, N. J., near Philadelphia. It has been met with in Texas as far east as the river Mimbres, and in Nebraska nearly to the Missouri River. The specimen from which the first description was made was obtained in the beginning of July, near the Platte River.

Mr. Nuttall, in his Western tour, first met with this species early in July, among the scanty wood on the banks of the northwest branch of the Platte River. He characterizes it as a bold and querulous bird. He found it all the way from thence to the forests of the Columbia and the Wahlamet, and throughout California to latitude 32°. He speaks of them as remarkably noisy and quarrelsome with each other, and, like the Kingbird, suffering nothing of the bird kind to approach them without exhibiting their predilection for dispute. He describes their note as a discordant, clicking warble, resembling tsh’k-tsh’k-tshivait,—sounding not unlike the creaking of a rusty door-hinge, something in the manner of a Kingbird, with a blending of the notes of the common Purple Grakle.

Mr. Townsend mentions finding this bird numerous along the banks of the Platte, particularly in the vicinity of trees. From that river to the banks of the Columbia, and as far as the ocean, it was a very common species. The males were wonderfully belligerent, fighting almost constantly and with great fury.

Dr. J. G. Cooper states that in California this is an abundant species, arriving in that State about the 20th of March. None are known to remain within the State during the winter. Small parties of males come first, and are very quarrelsome until each one has selected its mate. This is not done for several weeks, and the earliest nest with eggs that he has found was on the 12th of May at Santa Barbara. The nest, built on a branch of a low oak near the town, was five inches wide, constructed of lichens, twigs, coarse grass, and wool, lined with hair. It contained four eggs, measuring .94 by .70 of an inch. He describes them as creamy-white, spotted with purple of two shades near the larger end.

These birds are said to be almost an exact counterpart of the Kingbird, exhibiting the same courage in defence of their nests. Their notes are more varied and noisy, and they utter them almost constantly during the spring, often when flying and fighting. They are very destructive to bees, but compensate for this damage by destroying great quantities of noxious insects. They leave the State in October. At Puget Sound, early in June, Dr. Cooper found this species associating with the common Kingbird without any signs of disagreement, though their similar habits would naturally lead to disputes. He has even seen them together in parties of four about the period of mating. They do not approach the coast in Washington Territory.

Dr. Suckley found this species abundant in the central and western portions of Oregon and Washington Territory. He first noted their arrival from the South about May 15. The first notification of their presence is given by the skirmishes and quarrels incident to the love-season. Their battles are generally fought in the air, and present ludicrous alternations of pursuit and flight. At Fort Dalles their favorite breeding-places were oak-trees for the most part.

Mr. Charles D. Gibbes, of Stockton, informs us that these birds occasionally build their nests in the shrubbery about the gardens, but more frequently in large oak-trees, fifteen or twenty feet from the ground. They are constructed of weeds and grass firmly woven together, and lined with cotton, feathers, strings, and other soft materials. They are usually secured to the limb on which they are placed by a portion of the string. The diameter of the cavity of the nest is about three inches, depth one and a half. Their eggs are laid in May and June, and are four, five, or six in number. They are described as white, marked with dark brown spots on the larger end. In some the spots, decreasing in size, extend to the smaller end.

Dr. Hoy informs me that he has never detected this bird within the limits of Wisconsin, though he has no doubt that they may occasionally straggle into its limits, as have many of the birds peculiar to the Missouri region.

Mr. Ridgway gives it as one of the most abundant and familiar of the Tyrannidæ in the Sacramento Valley and the fertile portions of the Great Basin. He notes their excessively quarrelsome disposition, which far exceeds that of the eastern Kingbird, for fighting among themselves seems to be their chief amusement. As many as half a dozen of these birds were sometimes noticed pitching at one another promiscuously, in their playful combats; and when a nest was disturbed, the cries of the parents invariably brought to the vicinity all the birds of this species in the neighborhood, which, as soon as gathered together, began their aerial battles by attacking each other without regard apparently to individuals, accompanying the fight by a shrill twitter, very different from the loud rattling notes of the T. carolinensis. Indeed, all the notes of the western Kingbird are very conspicuously different from those of the eastern species, being weaker, and more twittering in their character. The nesting habits, the construction of the nest, and appearance of the eggs, are, however, almost perfectly identical.

Mr. Ridgway gives an interesting account (Am. Nat., Aug., 1869) of a young bird of this species which became quite domesticated with his party in the geological survey of the 40th parallel. It had been taken about the middle of July, fully fledged, from the nest, by some Indians, and was fed with grasshoppers and flies until able to catch them for itself. When not in quest of food it remained quietly perched on Mr. Ridgway’s shoulder or his hat, or would perch on a rope extending from the top of the tent to a stake. At night it frequently roosted under an umbrella which hung outside of the tent. If permitted, it would have preferred to keep on its master’s shoulder, snuggling against his neck. In the morning it was sure to come fluttering about his head, singling him out from a dozen or more persons who lay around upon the ground. It had an insatiable appetite, and was ascertained by actual count to consume one hundred and twenty fat grasshoppers in a day. It soon learned its own name, Chippy, and always answered to the call. It followed Mr. Ridgway when on horseback, occasionally leaving to sport with other birds, but always returning to his shoulder or hat. It evidently preferred the society of the camp to that of his own race. It was once, by accident, nearly shot, and ever after held the gun in great dread. It went with Mr. Ridgway from camp to camp, continuing perfectly tame and domesticated, until, as was supposed, it fell a prey to a Hawk.

The eggs of this species are not easily distinguishable from those of the common Kingbird. They have a ground-color of a crystalline whiteness, marked with bold dashes of reddish and purplish brown, the latter fewer and faint. They are oblong in shape, are pointed at one end, and measure 1 inch in length by .70 of an inch in breadth.

Tyrannus vociferans, SWAINSON.

CASSIN’S FLYCATCHER.

Tyrannus vociferans, SWAINSON, Mon. Tyrant Shrikes in Quarterly Journal Sc. XX, Jan. 1826, 273.—IB. Philos. Mag. I, 1827, 368.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 174, pl. xlviii.—IB. M. B. II, Birds 8, pl. x.—SCL. Catal. 1862, 235.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 314. Laphyctes vociferans, CABAN. Mus. Hein. II, 77. Tyrannus cassini, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. N. H. V, 1852, 39, pl. iii, fig. 2 (Texas).

SP. CHAR. Bill from the forehead about as long as the head. Tail even or slightly rounded. Outer five primaries attenuated; the first four abruptly and deeply emarginated; third quill longest, second and fourth a little less, first shorter than the sixth, and half an inch less than the longest. Head and neck above and on the sides rather dark bluish-ash; the throat and breast similar, and only a little paler. Rest of upper parts olive-green tinged with gray, mixed with brown on the rump; the upper tail-coverts and surface of the tail nearly black; the outer web of the external feather and the tips of all pale brown. The chin is white, in strong contrast to the dark ash of the throat; the rest of the under parts bright sulphur-yellow (the sides olivaceous), palest on the under tail-coverts and inside of wing. A concealed vermilion patch in the crown, bordered by straw-yellow. Wing-feathers brown, tinged with olive, becoming paler towards the edge. Length, 8.80; wing, 5.25; tail, 4.25.

HAB. Valley of Gila and southern California, eastward to Pecos River, Texas, and into Mexico, on table-lands; north along the Plains to Fort Laramie, south to Costa Rica. Oaxaca (SCL. P. Z. S. 1859, 383); Vera Paz (SCL. Ibis I, 121); W. Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 59); Vera Cruz, hot and temp. regions, and Plateau (SUM. M. Bost. Soc. I, 557.)

The table of specific characters presented under the generic head will readily serve to distinguish this species from its near ally, T. verticalis. The white outer web of the exterior tail-feather in verticalis, compared with the brown web, only edged with whitish of the present bird, is always sufficient to separate them; while the deep ash of the jugulum, and the much lighter, more brownish shade of the wings, are entirely peculiar features.

HABITS. This bird is abundant in Vera Cruz, where it is known by the name of Portuguéz. According to Sumichrast, it belongs to the hot and temperate regions, rather than the alpine. It is also common in the Plateau, and is found in all parts of Mexico.

In Arizona Dr. Coues states this bird to be an abundant summer resident, arriving in that Territory during the third week in April, and remaining until the latter part of September. It was found in every kind of locality. He furnishes no information as to its habits.

During the Mexican Boundary Survey this species was taken on the Colorado River, in California, by Dr. A. Schott, and at Los Nogales, Mexico, by Dr. Kennerly. It was also met with in the Sacramento Valley by Dr. Heermann; at Fort Thorn, New Mexico, by Dr. Henry; on the Pecos, Texas, by Captain Pope; and specimens from Mexico have been received from Mr. Gould. It does not appear to have been observed in Southwestern Texas by Mr. Dresser.

This species Dr. Cooper states to be quite common throughout the southern half of California, and resident throughout the year at least as far north as Los Angeles. In color they greatly resemble the T. verticalis, but are less lively and not so quarrelsome in their habits. During the early part of the year they begin to sing by daylight, generally from the top of some high tree. Their notes are said to be loud and much more musical than those of the other species, and their song exhibits considerable variety for a bird of this family. During the middle of the day they are rather quiet, and sit much of the time on their perch, occasionally catching an insect that comes very near, but they are supposed by Dr. Cooper to feed mostly in the very early morning. This observer found them breeding at San Diego as early as March 28, as well as subsequently. Their nest is said to be much larger and more firmly built than are those of others of the genus, being five and a half inches in external diameter and about two and a half in height. The cavity is three inches wide at the rim. The eggs, which he describes as white, with large scattered reddish-brown and umber blotches, measure .96 of an inch in length and .70 in breadth. He found some of these birds in Santa Clara Valley in May, 1864. They appeared to be smaller and greener on the back than those from the South. They winter in large numbers at Santa Clara, in latitude 37°.

Dr. Coues found this a very abundant summer resident at Fort Whipple, breeding there in considerable numbers, and all leaving early in October.

Mr. Ridgway did not meet with this species anywhere in the Great Basin, nor in the Sacramento Valley. On the plains it is found as far north as Cheyenne and Laramie Peak, and in the southern portion of the Western Provinces extends westward to California.

Specimens were obtained by Mr. George M. Skinner from Salamá, Vera Paz, in Central America. It was also taken, in February, near Oaxaca, Mexico, by Mr. Boucard.

A nest of this bird (No. 1,828), in the Smithsonian Museum, was taken at Volcan de Colima, June, 1863, by Mr. John Xantus. It is a slight structure composed chiefly of wiry grass, mixed with bits of wool, and lined with finer grasses. The eggs are two in number, having a pure-white ground, freckled on the larger end with purplish-brown and grayish-lilac. These markings are more sparse and are finer than those of the eggs of any other species of this genus, so far as I am aware. One of the eggs has a few blotches of umber on the larger end. They measure, one .93 by .68 of an inch, the other .93 by .65.

Tyrannus melancholicus, var. couchi, BAIRD.

COUCH’S KINGBIRD.

Tyrannus couchi, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 175, pl. xlix, f. 1.—SCL. Catal. Am. B. 1862, 235.

SP. CHAR. Bill long as the head. Feet stout. Five outer primaries abruptly attenuated at the end; the third and fourth longest; the first a little longer than the sixth. Tail considerably forked (depth of fork about .30 of an inch, or more). Head, neck, and jugulum bluish-ashy, becoming nearly white on the throat, and shaded with yellow on the breast. Rest of lower parts gamboge-yellow. Rest of upper parts olive-green, tinged with ash anteriorly. Tail and primaries grayish-brown, the tail not the darker. Wing-coverts passing externally into pale, the tertials edged with almost white. Crown with a concealed patch of bright orange-red. Length, 9.00; wing, 5.00; tail, 4.70.

HAB. Middle America (both coasts), from southern border of United States, south to Guatemala; Tucson, Arizona (BENDIRE).

All specimens of T. melancholicus from regions north of Guatemala are referrible to var. couchi; all from Costa Rica southward, to melancholicus.

It is only by comparing specimens from near the extreme northern and southern limits of the range of the species, that differences are readily discernible; and between these two extremes there is so gradual a transition that it is impossible to draw a line separating two well-marked varieties, so that it is necessary to assume an arbitrary geographical line, and determine specimens from the middle regions by their position, whether to the north or south of the line established. Specimens from Buenos Ayres, the Parana, and Brazil, to Peru and New Granada, are identical. Costa Rica specimens (T. satrapa, LICHT.) have the dark tail of var. melancholicus and white throat of couchi.

GENUS MYIARCHUS, CABANIS.

Myiarchus, CABANIS, Fauna Peruana, 1844-46, 152.—BURMEISTER, Thiere Brasiliens, II, Vögel, 1856, 469.

GEN. CHAR. Tarsus equal to or not longer than the middle toe, which is decidedly longer than the hinder one. Bill wider at base than half the culmen. Tail broad, long, even, or slightly rounded, about equal to the wings, which scarcely reach the middle of the tail; the first primary shorter than the sixth. Head with elongated lanceolate distinct feathers. Above brownish-olive, throat ash, belly yellow. Tail and wing feathers varied with rufous.

This genus is well marked among the American Flycatchers, and constitutes what Bonaparte called Ultimi Tyrannorum sive Tyrannularum primæ. The type is the Muscicapa ferox of Gmelin, (M. tyrannulus,) which, as identified by Cabanis and Burmeister as above, appears to resemble our species very closely.

[Line drawing: Myiarchus mexicanus. 1449]

For an elaborate discussion of the various forms of this exceedingly difficult genus, we are indebted to a recent monograph by Dr. Coues, in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy, for June and July, 1872 (pp. 56-81). With the same material for our investigations, we have been led, after a very careful perusal of the valuable paper mentioned, and tedious critical comparison of the large material at our command, to adopt a somewhat difficult view of the relationship of the forms characterized. The following synopsis expresses their affinity as at present understood:—

COMMON CHARACTERS. Above olivaceous, usually uniform, sometimes darker, sometimes more ashy, on the head above. Head and jugulum more or less ashy, though the latter is sometimes very pale. Rest of lower parts sulphur-yellow, sometimes almost or quite white. Primaries, secondaries, and rectrices usually more or less edged on either web with rufous; but sometimes entirely destitute of this color.

Species and Varieties.

A. Bill sub-conical; sometimes nearly terete, its depth equal to, or exceeding, its breadth in the middle portion; its lateral outlines moderately divergent basally; terminal hook abrupt, strong. (Myionax.)

1. M. tyrannulus. No trace of rufous edgings on either wings or tail. Above ashy-olive, the pileum similar, the outer webs of wing-coverts and secondaries edged with whitish. Head, laterally and beneath, ashy, the throat and jugulum more whitish; rest of lower parts sulphur-yellow. Tail slightly rounded.

Pileum and nape umber-brown; upper surface umber-grayish. Bill dark brown. Wing, 3.50-3.70; tail, 3.60-3.90; culmen, .90-.95; tarsus, .80-.90. Hab. South and Central America, from Bolivia and Southern Brazil to Costa Rica var. tyrannulus.[66]

Whole head and neck pure ash, paler on the throat, and darker on the pileum; upper surface greenish-ash. Bill black. Wing, 3.70; tail, 4.00; culmen, .82; tarsus, .91. Hab. Ecuador and Guayaquil var. phæocephalus.[67]

2. M. validus.[68] All the wing-coverts, tertials, secondaries, primaries, and rectrices distinctly edged with rufous (the latter on both webs). Above olivaceous, more ashy anteriorly; the upper tail-coverts more rufescent; remiges broadly rufous on exterior edges; rectrices with the whole inner web (except a narrow streak along the shaft) and edge of outer web rufous. Head beneath, and entire throat and breast, deep ash; rest of lower parts sulphur-yellow, the junction of the two colors not well defined. Wing, 3.80-4.20; tail, 3.80-4.20; culmen, 1.00; tarsus, .80-91; tail even; third and fourth quill longest. Hab. Jamaica.

3. M. crinitus. Outer webs of primaries distinctly edged with rufous (no other rufous on wings); inner webs of rectrices broadly, sometimes entirely, rufous, none on outer webs (except in young). Above olivaceous, varying from a greenish to an ashy cast, the pileum more brownish. Wing-coverts (both rows) broadly tipped with brownish ashy-whitish; tertials, secondaries, and lateral tail-feather broadly edged on outer web with the same. Head laterally and beneath ashy paler on the throat and jugulum; rest of lower parts delicate yellow, varying from a rich lemon to a pale sulphur tint. Hab. Continental America.

Bill dark brown (never black). Upper parts decidedly greenish; ash of throat and jugulum, and yellow of abdomen, etc., very deep.

Inner webs of rectrices wholly rufous, or with only a narrow strip of dusky along the shaft. Wing, 3.75-4.25; tail, 3.75-4.20; culmen, .95-1.00; tarsus, .85-.90. Hab. Eastern Province of North America; in winter south through Eastern Mexico to Guatemala (grading into var. irritabilis in Nicaragua) var. crinitus.

Bill deep black; upper parts without a greenish, but, instead, an ashy-brownish cast; ash of throat and jugulum, and yellow of abdomen, etc., very pale.

Inner webs of rectrices broadly (but not entirely) rufous to the extreme tip, with a broad dusky stripe next the shaft.

Wing, 4.10-4.50; tail, 4.00-4.70; culmen, 1.10-1.20; tarsus, 1.00-1.05. Hab. Southern and Western Mexico (Tehuantepec, Yucatan, Mazatlan, etc.) var. cooperi.[69]

Wing, 3.60-3.90; tail, 3.50-3.75; culmen, .90-1.00; tarsus, .80-.85. Hab. Eastern South America, and Central America, from Paraguay to Costa Rica (grading into var. cooperi in Guatemala, and into var. cinerascens in Tehuantepec) var. irritabilis.[70]

Inner webs of rectrices almost entirely rufous to near the extreme tip, the end of the web, however, being brownish-dusky like the outer.

Wing, 3.35-4.10; tail, 3.35-4.10; culmen, .80-1.00; tarsus, .80-.91. Hab. Western Province of United States, and Western Mexico (grading into var. irritabilis in Tehuantepec, and in winter migrating into Eastern Mexico) var. cinerascens.

4. M. stolidus. Colors essentially nearly as the varieties of M. crinitus. Primaries more or less distinctly edged with rufous, especially on inner quills; rectrices with inner webs more or less edged with rufous (found only terminally in var. antillarum). Wing-coverts broadly tipped with dull ashy-whitish. Above brownish-slaty, with an olivaceous cast, the pileum more or less appreciably darker. Beneath ashy-white, without distinct yellow (except in var. stolidus, in which the abdomen, etc., are pale sulphury yellow). Tail varying in shape from slightly rounded to distinctly emarginated. Hab. West Indies.

Beneath entirely white, only faintly, or hardly appreciably, tinged with sulphur-yellow on the flanks.

Inner web of rectrices broadly edged with rufous for the whole length. Crown scarcely darker than the back. Tail distinctly emarginated. Wing, 3.15-3.50; tail, 3.30-3.60; culmen, .85-.95; tarsus, .80-85. (Bahaman specimens the larger). Hab. Bahamas and Cuba var. phœbe.[71]

Inner web of rectrices not edged with rufous except at extreme tip, where sometimes also absent. Crown decidedly darker than the back. Tail slightly rounded. Wing, 3.25-3.50; tail, 3.20-3.60; culmen, .85-95; tarsus, .85-90. Hab. Porto Rico var. antillarum.[72]

Beneath white only on throat and jugulum, the abdomen, etc., being sulphur-yellow.

Inner webs of rectrices more or less distinctly edged with rufous for whole length. Pileum very much darker than the back. Wing, 3.35-3.50; tail, 3.35-3.65; culmen, .90-.95; tarsus, .80-.85. Tail faintly doubly-rounded. Hab. Hayti, Jamaica, (and Yucatan?) var. stolidus.[73]

B. Bill much depressed, its depth only about half its width, in the middle portion; lateral outlines widely divergent basally; terminal hook weak. (Myiarchus.)

5. M. tristis. Colors very variable, and amount of rufous exceedingly different in the different races. Inner webs of rectrices seldom edged with rufous; rufous sometimes entirely absent on both wings and tail, and sometimes the whole wing and both webs of rectrices distinctly edged with it. Above ashy-olive, usually with more or less of a greenish cast, the pileum decidedly darker (except in var. lawrencei); throat and jugulum ashy-white; rest of lower parts sulphur-yellow. Hab. Central and South America, and Jamaica.

Pileum sooty-brown, decidedly darker than the back; wings and tail entirely destitute of rufous edgings, except a faint tinge on outer webs of inner secondaries and rectrices, towards the base. Tail faintly rounded. Wing, 3.00; tail, 3.10; culmen, .80; tarsus, .65. Hab. Jamaica var. tristis.[74]

Pileum grayish-brown, not appreciably darker than the back; outer webs of inner secondaries and primaries and rectrices faintly edged with rufous. Wing, 2.80-3.40; tail, 2,85-3.45; culmen, .85-.90; tarsus, .75-.80. Hab. Northern Mexico, from northern boundary, south to Colima, Tehuantepec, Yucatan, and Salvador var. lawrencei.[75]

Pileum sooty-blackish, decidedly and abruptly darker than the back. Outer webs of wing-coverts, primaries, secondaries, and rectrices distinctly edged with rufous. Yellow beneath brighter than in lawrencei. Wing, 3.20-3.30; tail, 3.15-3.30; culmen, .80-.85; tarsus, .75-.80. Hab. Central America from Panama to Guatemala (grading into var. lawrencei in Tehuantepec, and Orizaba) var. nigricapillus.[76]

Pileum deep black, abruptly different from the greenish-olive of the back, and separated from it by a more ashy shade. Wings and tail wholly destitute of rufous edgings. Yellow beneath brighter than in var. nigricapillus. Wing, 3.20; tail, 3.20; culmen, .85; tarsus, .78. Tail about even. Hab. Northwest South America, from Ecuador northward (grading into nigricapillus on Isthmus of Panama) var. nigriceps.[77]

[66] Myiarchus tyrannulus (MÜLL.), COUES. _Muscicapa tyrannulus_, MÜLL. (G. R. GR. Hand List, No. 5,527). Myiarchus t. COUES, P. A. N. S. Phila. July, 1872, 71. (M. aurora, BODD.; flaviventris, STEPH.; ferox, GM.; swainsoni, CABAN.; panamensis, LAWR.; venezuelensis, LAWR.)

[67] Myiarchus tyrannulus, var. phæocephalus (SCLATER). Myiarchus phæocephalus, SCL. P. Z. S. 1860, 481.—COUES, P. A. N. S. 1872, 73.

[68] Myiarchus validus, CABANIS. Tyrannus crinitus, GOSSE, B. Jam. 186 (nec Auct.). Myiarchus validus, CABAN. Orn. Nat. II, 351, et Auct. COUES, P. A. N. S. July, 1872, 62.

[69] Myiarchus crinitus, var. cooperi (KAUP). BAIRD. Tyrannula cooperi, KAUP. P. Z. S. 1851, 51. Myiarchus cooperi, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 180. Myiarchus crinitus, var. cooperi, COUES, P. A. N. S. July, 1872, 67.

[70] Myiarchus crinitus, var. irritabilis (VIEILL.), COUES. Tyrannus irritabilis, VIEILL. Enc. Meth. 1823, II, 847. Myiarchus crinitus, var. irritabilis, COUES, P. A. N. S. July, 1872, 65. (M. erythrocercus, SCL.; _M. mexicanus_, KAUP, LAWR.; M. yucatanensis, LAWR.)

Obs.—It is, perhaps, probable that in Yucatan this race grades into the M. stolidus (var. stolidus), since there is a specimen in the collection from Merida (39,213, April 9, 1865, A. Schott) which seems to be very nearly intermediate in every way between the two. It has the very black hill, restricted rufous on inner webs of rectrices, and pale yellow of lower parts of M. stolidus, and the brown pileum and more robust proportions of irritabilis. The specimen, however, is in poor condition, being of worn and faded plumage, and much distorted, so that its true characters cannot be ascertained satisfactorily.

[71] Myiarchus stolidus, var. phœbe (D’ORB.), COUES. Tyrannus phœbe, D’ORB. Sagra’s Cuba, Ois. p. 84. Myiarchus stolidus, var. phœbe, COUES, P. A. N. S. July, 1872, 78. (Sagræ, GUNDL.; stolida, var. lucaysiensis, BRYANT).

[72] Myiarchus stolidus, var. antillarum (BRYANT), COUES. Tyrannus (Myiarchus) antillarum, BRYANT, P. B. S. N. H. 1866, p. 2. Myiarchus stolidus, var. antillarum, COUES, P. A. N. S. July, 1872, 79.

[73] Myiarchus stolidus, var. stolidus (GOSSE), CABANIS. Myiobius stolidus, GOSSE. B. Jam. p. 168. Myiarchus s. CABANIS, J. für Orn. 1855, 479.—COUES, P. A. N. S. 1872, 77. (Stolidus var. dominicensis, BRYANT.)

[74] Myiarchus tristis (GOSSE), COUES. Myiobius tristis, GOSSE, B. Jam. 167, pl. xli. Myiarchus t. COUES, P. A. N. S. July, 1872, 80.

[75] Myiarchus tristis, var. lawrencei (GIRAUD), BAIRD. Tyrannula lawrencei, GIRAUD, 16 sp. Tex. B. pl. ii. Myiarchus l. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 181, pl. xlvii, f. 3.—COUES, P. A. N. S. July, 1872, 74.

Obs.—The most typical specimens are from Mazatlan and northward, across the northern portion of Mexico. On the eastern coast, specimens from Mirador and Orizaba already strongly incline toward var. nigricapillus.

[76] Myiarchus tristis, var. nigricapillus, CABANIS. “Myiarchus nigricapillus, CABAN.” SCL. Cat. Am. B. 1862, 233, et Auct. M. lawrencei, COUES, P. A. N. S. 1872, 74 (in part).

Obs.—A very strongly differentiated form, but unquestionably grading into var. lawrencei on the one hand, and var. nigriceps on the other.

[77] Myiarchus tristis, var. nigriceps, SCLATER. Myiarchus nigriceps, SCL. P. Z. S. 1860, 68, 295.—COUES, P. A. N. S. July, 1872, 75.

Obs.—The last three races appear to be all reducible to one species, as, taking the large series of specimens before us (over 30 skins), we find it impossible to draw the line between them. Specimens from Southern Mexico are referrible, with equal propriety, to lawrencei or to nigricapillus, while skins from Panama of nigriceps are less typical than those from Ecuador. This case of gradually increasing melanistic tendency as we proceed southward affords an exact parallel to that of Vireosylvia gilvus and V. josephæ, Sayornis nigricans and S. aquaticus, and many other cases.

Myiarchus crinitus, CABANIS.

GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER.

Muscicapa crinita, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 325.—WILSON, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 75, pl. xiii.—LICHT. Verzeichniss Doubl. 1823, No. 559.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 176; V, 423, pl. cxxix.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 209, pl. lvii. Tyrannus crinitus, SWAINSON, Mon. Tyrant Shrikes in Quarterly Journal, XX, Jan. 1826, 271.—NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 302.—MAX. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 182. Myiobius crinitus, GRAY, Genera, I, 248. _Tyrannula crinita_, BONAP. Consp. 1850, 189.—KAUP, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1851, 51. Myiarchus crinitus, CABANIS, Journ. für Ornith. III, 1855, 479.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 178.—SCL. Catal. 1862, 232.—SAMUELS, 131. _Myionax crinitus_, CABAN. Mus. Hein. 1859, 73 (type, Journ. 1861, 250). Muscicapa ludoviciana, GM. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 934.—LATHAM, Ind. Tyrannus ludovicianus, VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, pl. xlv. _Muscicapa virginiana cristata_, BRISSON, II, 1760, 412. Crested Flycatcher, PENNANT, LATHAM. Figure: BUFFON, pl. enl. 569, fig. 1.

SP. CHAR. Head with a depressed crest. Third quill longest; fourth and second successively but little shorter; first a little longer than seventh; much shorter than sixth. Tail decidedly rounded or even graduated; the lateral feather about .25 of an inch shorter. Upper parts dull greenish-olive, with the feathers of the crown and to some extent of the back showing their brown centres; upper tail-coverts turning to pale rusty-brown. Small feathers at the base of the bill, ceres, sides of the head as high as the upper eyelid, sides of the neck, throat, and forepart of the breast, bluish-ashy; the rest of the lower parts, including axillaries and lower wing-coverts, bright sulphur-yellow. A pale ring round the eye. Sides of the breast and body tinged with olivaceous. The wings brown; the first and second rows of coverts, with the secondary and tertial quills, margined externally with dull white, or on the latter slightly tinged with olivaceous-yellow. Primaries margined externally for more than half their length from the base with ferruginous; great portion of the inner webs of all the quills very pale ferruginous. The two middle tail-feathers light brown, shafts paler; the rest have the outer web and a narrow line on the inner sides of the shaft brown, pale olivaceous on the outer edge; the remainder ferruginous to the very tip. Outer web of exterior feather dull brownish-yellow. Feet black. Bill dark brown above and at the tip below; paler towards the base. Length, 8.75; wing, 4.25; tail, 4.10; tarsus, .85.

HAB. Eastern North America to the Missouri and south to Eastern Texas (not yet observed farther west). Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 121); Cuba (GUNDL. Repert. 1865, 239; CAB. J. III, 479); ? Jamaica (GOSSE, B. J. 186); Panama (LAWR. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 329); Costa Rica (CABAN. J. 1861, 250; LAWR. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 115); San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 473, rare).

The female appears to have no brown on the inner web of the quills along the shaft, or else it is confined chiefly to the outer feathers.

The young is hardly appreciably different, having merely the wing-coverts tinged with rusty at the ends.

HABITS. The common Great-crested Flycatcher of eastern North America has a much more extended northern distribution than has been generally given it by earlier writers. Wilson speaks of it only as a bird of Pennsylvania. Audubon mentions their occurring as far as Massachusetts, but as confined to the mountains, and as entirely unknown farther eastward. Mr. Nuttall refers to it as nearly unknown in New England, and as never appearing near the coast.

It is now known to be a regular though a somewhat rare summer resident, at least as far to the northeast as St. Stephen, New Brunswick, latitude 45° north, longitude 67° west, and as far to the north in Vermont as Randolph, and Hamilton in Canada, both in about latitude 44°. Mr. Boardman mentions it as a regular summer visitant, and as breeding near Calais. Professor Verrill gives it as a rare summer visitant of Western Maine. Mr. McIlwraith states it to be a common summer resident of Hamilton, Canada West, where it arrives about the 10th of May, after which its harsh cry is heard in all parts of the woods. It winters in Central America and Panama.

In a letter dated June 17, 1865, Mr. C. S. Paine of Randolph, Vt., informed me that he had, within a few days, found a nest of this Flycatcher. It was built in the hollow of a decayed apple-tree, in one of its limbs. The nest was built up from the bottom of the cavity some eight inches, and contained six eggs. Though not very abundant in that neighborhood, Mr. Paine had been aware, for several years, of the occurrence of this Flycatcher, but had never before been able to ascertain its manner of nesting. He has since informed me that these Flycatchers have continued to occur every summer, as they always make their presence known by their harsh notes, which may be heard to quite a distance, and he knows that they breed there regularly every year. They are shy, and do not come about the buildings, but are generally seen in the woods and orchards.

In Eastern Massachusetts they are not common, but scattered pairs have been met with in Concord, Acton, Newton, Hingham, and in other places.

Dr. Coues states that the Great-crested Flycatcher reaches Washington the third week in April, and leaves the last of September. It is a common summer resident, but is most numerous in the spring and autumn. It is found on the edge of open woods, and betrays its presence by its peculiar notes. In the western part of Massachusetts, Mr. Allen gives it as a rare summer visitant, having been taken by him from May 15 to September 17, and having been found breeding on Mount Tom by Mr. C. W. Bennett. It is found abundantly in the Middle and Southern States as far south as Florida and Texas, and occurs as far to the west as the Missouri River. Dr. Woodhouse found it very abundant in Texas and in the Indian Territory, and Mr. Dresser obtained specimens at San Antonio in the month of April.

In speaking of the habits of this species, Wilson accuses it of being addicted to eating bees equally with the Kingbird; but as this bird is known to feed largely on berries, and to feed its young to some extent with the same, the extent of such propensity may well be doubted. It is not so prone to attack birds larger than itself as is the Kingbird, which Wilson characterizes as cowardice, but which it would be more charitable to call prudence. It is said to be harsh, cruel, and vindictive to smaller birds and to weaker individuals of its own species.

In its flight it moves with power, steadiness, and swiftness, and when in pursuit of insects follows its prey with great zeal and perseverance. When it captures a large insect, it retires to its perch and beats it against the limb. These birds are not in the least gregarious. They occur in isolated pairs, and appear to have no interest or sympathy with others than those of their own household. To each other, however, they are attentive and considerate, and they are devoted in their solicitude for their young.

Their usual call-note is a sharp disagreeable squeak, which, once known, is easily recognized. Besides this it has a monotonous succession of squeaking, harsh notes, only a little less unpleasant. They raise but one brood in a season, and remain together in a family group of from six to eight until they leave, in the middle of September.

During the early summer this species feeds chiefly upon insects of various kinds, which it catches with great facility, skill, and assiduity; afterwards, as if from choice, it chiefly eats ripe berries of various kinds of shrubs and plants, among which those of the poke-weed and the huckleberry are most noticeable. It nests altogether in hollows in trees, stumps, or limbs. It lines the bottoms of these hollows with a great variety of miscellaneous materials, and in quantities that vary with the size and shape of the place to be occupied. These beds are composed of loose hay, feathers, the hair of various small quadrupeds, etc., while the exuviæ of snakes are almost always to be met with.

The eggs, four, five, or six in number, are peculiar and noticeably varied and beautiful in their style of markings, varying also somewhat in shape. Generally they are nearly spherical, and equally obtuse at either end. Occasionally they are an oblong oval, one end a very little more tapering than the other. Their ground-color is a beautiful light buff, rather than a cream-color, over which are waving lines, marblings, markings, and dots of a brilliant purple, and others of a more obscure shading. The lines are variously distributed, generally running from one pole of the egg to the other with striking effect, as if laid on with the delicate brush of an artist. In some eggs the whole surface is so closely covered with these intercrossing and waving lines, blending with the obscure cloudings of lilac, as nearly to conceal the ground. Usually the buff color is conspicuously apparent, and sets off the purple lines with great effect.

An oblong-oval egg from New Jersey measures 1.10 inches in length by .70 of an inch in breadth. A more nearly spherical egg from Florida measures .90 by .75 of an inch. These well represent the two extremes. Their average is about 1 inch by .75 of an inch.

The eggs of all the members of this genus have a remarkable similarity, and can scarcely be mistaken for those of any other group.

Myiarchus crinitus, var. cinerascens, LAWR.

ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER.

Tyrannula cinerascens, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. N. Hist. V, Sept. 1851, 109. Myiarchus cinerascens, SCL. List, 1862, 133.—IB. P. Z. S. 1871, 84.—COUES, Pr. A. N. S. July, 1872, 69. Myiarchus mexicanus, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 179, pl. 5.—HEERM. X, S, 37, pl. v.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 316. Myiarchus mexicanus, var. pertinax, BAIRD, P. A. N. S. 1859, 303 (Cape St. Lucas).

SP. CHAR. Bill black, the width opposite the nostrils not half the length of culmen. Head crested. Tail even, the lateral feathers slightly shorter. Second, third, and fourth quills longest; first rather shorter than the seventh. Above dull grayish-olive; the centres of the feathers rather darker; the crown, rump, and upper tail-coverts tinged with brownish. The forehead and sides of the head and neck grayish-ash; the chin, throat, and forepart of the breast ashy-white; the middle of the breast white; the rest of the under parts very pale sulphur-yellow; wings and tail brown. Two bands across the wing, with outer edges of secondaries and tertials, dull white; the outer edges of the primaries light chestnut-brown (except towards the tip and on the outer feather); the inner edges tinged with the same. Whole of middle tail-feathers, with the outer webs (only) and the ends of the others brown; the rest of the inner webs reddish-chestnut, the outer web of exterior feather yellowish-white. Legs and bill black; lower mandible brownish at the base. Length about 8.00; wing, 4.00; tail, 4.10; tarsus, .90.

HAB. Coast of California, to Cape St. Lucas, and across by the valley of Gila and Rio Grande to Northeastern Mexico. Seen as far north in Texas as San Antonio. Oaxaca (SCL. 1859, 384); ? Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 129); Vera Cruz hot regions, resident (SUM. M. Bost. Soc. I); San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 473).

In a young specimen the crown is more tinged with brown; the upper tail-coverts and the middle tail-feathers are chestnut, and, in fact, all the tail-feathers are of this color, except along both sides of the shaft on the central feathers, and along its outer side in the lateral ones.

This species is easily distinguished from T. crinitus and T. cooperi by the brown tip of the tail; the colors paler than in the former, bill slenderer, and tarsi longer.

A variety of this species (pertinax[78]) is found at Cape St. Lucas, and distinguished chiefly by the considerably larger and stouter bill.

HABITS. The Ash-throated or Mexican Flycatcher appears to be a common species, from San Antonio, Texas, its extreme northeastern point, southwesterly throughout Mexico as far south as Guatemala, and westward to the Pacific coast. It has been obtained in various parts of California by Mr. Cutts, Mr. Schott, Dr. Heermann, and others, as also on the Gila River. Dr. Kennerly procured specimens at Los Nogales, Mexico, and others have met with it near the city of Mexico, at Saltillo, and in different parts of Western Texas. It was found breeding at Cape San Lucas by Mr. Xantus.

In the Department of Vera Cruz, Mr. Sumichrast found this species apparently confined to the hot region. He did not meet with it anywhere else.

Mr. Dresser thinks that this Flycatcher does not reach San Antonio before the latter part of April. The first that came under his notice was one that he shot, on the 23d of that month, on the Medina River. It breeds near the Medina and the San Antonio Rivers, making its nest in a hollow tree, or taking possession of a deserted Woodpecker’s hole. Mr. Dresser observed these birds as far to the east as the Guadaloupe River, where they were common. Farther east he saw but very few. Their eggs he speaks of as peculiarly marked with a multitude of purple and brown dashes and lines on a dull yellowish-brown ground, and very similar to those of Myiarchus crinitus.

In the Mexican Boundary Survey, individuals of this species were taken by Mr. A. Schott, March 31, on the Colorado Bottom; near the Gila River, New Mexico, December 31; and also at Eagle Pass, in Texas, date not given. Mr. J. H. Clark obtained a specimen at Frontera, Texas, where he mentions finding it in great abundance in damp places, or near the water. In May, 1853, Lieutenant Couch secured several near Saltillo, and notes its occurrence among mesquite-bushes. In the following June, Dr. Kennerly found them very abundant at Los Nogales. Where two were found together, they were generally noticed to be uttering a loud chattering noise.

Dr. Heermann, in his Report on the birds observed in the survey of Lieutenant Williamson’s route between the 32d and the 35th parallels, mentions finding this species abundant. His specimens were obtained near Posa Creek. He describes them as of shy and retiring habits, preferring the deep and shady forests where its insect food abounds. The nests, found in hollows of trees or in a deserted squirrel’s or Woodpecker’s hole, were composed of grasses and lined with feathers. The eggs, five in number, he describes as cream-colored, marked and speckled with purplish-red dashes and faint blotches of a neutral tint.

Dr. Coues found them a common summer resident in Arizona, where they arrived in the third week in April and remained until the middle of September. They were seldom found among pine-trees, but appeared to prefer ravines, hillsides, and creek bottoms. Some wintered as high up in the Colorado Valley as Fort Mohave. At Fort Whipple young birds were first observed early in July.

Dr. Cooper obtained one of this species at Fort Mohave, January 15, and is of the opinion that some may habitually winter in the Colorado Valley. In California they begin to arrive about March 10, and extend their range through very nearly the whole of the State. He describes their notes as few, loud, and harsh, but little varied, and uttered from time to time as they fly after an insect from an accustomed perch, usually a lower dead limb of a forest tree. They prefer shady situations, and are said to feed late in the evening.

Mr. Ridgway met with this species in all suitable localities, from the Sacramento Valley eastward to the Wahsatch Mountains. It was most abundant among the oaks of the plains between the Sacramento River and the Sierra Nevada; but in the wooded river valleys of the interior, as well as in the cedar and piñon or mahogany woods on the mountains of the latter region, it was also more or less frequently met with. In its manners it is described as a counterpart of the eastern M. crinitus, but its notes, though generally similar in character, have not that strength which makes the vociferous screaming whistles of the eastern species so noticeable.

This species, or a very closely allied race of it (var. pertinax) was procured at Cape St. Lucas by Mr. Xantus. It had the peculiarities of a southern race, stronger feet, stouter bill, and a generally smaller size.

A few individuals of this species were found by Mr. Grayson inhabiting the islands of the Three Marias, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. He usually saw them among low bushes, darting from their perch after flies and other winged insects. They were very silent, and seldom uttered a note.

Four eggs of this species from Matamoras, collected by the late Dr. Berlandier, have the following measurements: .82 by .75, .91 by .71, .95 by .75, .98 by .75 of an inch. Though having a very close resemblance to the eggs of M. crinita, there are noticeable certain constant variations. The ground-color is a little lighter, and has a tinge of pinkish not found in the eggs of the eastern species. The markings are more in oblong plashes of irregular shape, and rarely exhibit the waving lines. There are more and larger blotches of a light purplish-brown. The eggs are a little more spherical in their general shape, and the markings are less abundant. The eggs of M. cooperi have a still more roseate tint in the buff of the ground-color, are marked with smaller blotches of bright purple and much larger ones of lilac-brown. They measure .92 by .75 of an inch.

[78] Myiarchus mexicanus, var. pertinax, BAIRD, Pr. Phil. Acad. 1859, 303.

GENUS SAYORNIS, BONAP.

Sayornis, BONAP. ? Ateneo italiano, 1854.—IB. Comptes Rendus, 1854, Notes Orn. Delattre. Aulanax, CABANIS, Journal für Orn. 1856, 1 (type, nigricans).

GEN. CHAR. Head with a blended depressed moderate crest. Tarsus decidedly longer than middle toe, which is scarcely longer than the hind toe. Bill rather narrow; width at base about half the culmen. Tail broad, long, slightly forked; equal to the wings, which are moderately pointed, and reach to the middle of the tail. First primary shorter than the sixth.

This genus agrees with the preceding in the length of the broad tail, but has a longer tarsus and a different style of coloration. The species are distinguished as follows:—

S. nigricans. Sooty black; abdomen and edge of outer web of lateral tail-feather pure white.

a. Lower tail-coverts pure white.

Greater wing-coverts paler toward tips of outer webs. Wing, 3.60; tail, 3.45. Hab. Pacific Province, United States, and Mexico var. nigricans.

b. Lower tail-coverts blackish.

Greater coverts not appreciably paler at ends. Wing, 3.35; tail, 3.30. Hab. Middle America, north of Panama var. aquaticus.[79]

Both rows of wing-coverts distinctly tipped with white; white edgings of secondaries very conspicuous. Wing, 3.35; tail, 3.30. Hab. New Granada; Venezuela var. cinerascens.[80]

S. fuscus. Grayish-olive above, and on sides of breast; beneath (including throat) white, tinged with sulphur-yellow. Wing, 3.40; tail, 3.20. Hab. Eastern Province United States; Eastern Mexico.

S. sayus. Brownish-ashy, the tail and upper tail-coverts black; abdomen and crissum deep ochraceous. Hab. Western Province of United States, and whole of Mexico.

[79] Sayornis nigricans, var. aquaticus. Sayornis aquaticus, SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, p. 119 (Guatemala).

[80] Sayornis nigricans, var. cineracens. Sayornis cineracea, LAFR. Rev. Zoöl. 1848, p. 8.—SCL. Catal. Am. Birds, 1862, 200. The above races are clearly shown to be merely modifications, with latitude, of one type, by the series of specimens before us. Thus, specimens of S. nigricans from Orizaba show more or less dusky on the lower tail-coverts, while in more northern specimens (i. e. typical var. nigricans) there is not a trace of it. Typical specimens of aquaticus, from Guatemala, show merely a more advanced melanism, the lighter markings on the wings becoming greatly restricted; there is still, however, a decided presence of white on the lower tail-coverts. Specimens from Costa Rica (typical aquaticus) exhibit the maximum degree of melanism, the white beneath being confined to a central spot on the abdomen. In cineraceus (from New Granada) the white beneath is similarly restricted, but on the wings is very conspicuous, showing a reversion back to the character of nigricans, though surpassing the latter in the amount of white on the coverts and secondaries.

The S. latirostris (Aulanax l. CAB. & HEIN. Mus. Hein. ii, p. 68; Sayornis l. SCL. Cat. Am. B. 1862, 200), from Ecuador, we have not seen. It is probably also referrible to the same type.

Sayornis nigricans, BONAP.

BLACK PEWEE.

Tyrannula nigricans, SWAINSON, Syn. Birds Mex. Taylor’s Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 367.—NEWBERRY, Zoöl. Cal. & Or. Route, Rep. P. R. R. Surv. VI, IV, 1857, 81. Muscicapa nigricans, AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 302, pl. cccclxxiv.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 218, pl. lx. Tyrannus nigricans, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 326. Myiobius nigricans, GRAY. Myiarchus nigricans, CABANIS, Tschudi Fauna Peruan. 1844-46, 153 (Peru). _Sayornis nigricans_, BONAP. Comptes Rendus XXVIII, 1854, notes Orn. 87.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 183.—HEERM. X, S, 38.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 319. Aulanax nigricans, CABANIS, Cab. Journ. für Ornith. IV, Jan. 1856, 2 (type of genus).—IB. M. H. II, 68. Muscicapa semiatra, VIGORS, Zoöl. Beechey Voy. 1839, 17.

[Line drawing: Sayornis nigricans. 3906]

SP. CHAR. Wings rounded; second, third, and fourth longest; first rather shorter than sixth. Tarsi with a second row of scales behind. The head and neck all round, forepart and sides of the breast, dark sooty-brown; the rest of the upper parts similar, but lighter; faintly tinged with lead-color towards the tail. The middle of the breast, abdomen, and lower tail-coverts white; some of the latter, with the shafts and the centre, brown. The lower wing-coverts grayish-brown, edged with white. Wings dark brown; the edges of secondary coverts rather lighter; of primary coverts dull white. Edge of the exterior vane of the first primary and of secondaries white. Tail dark brown, with the greater part of the outer vane of the exterior tail-feather white; this color narrowing from the base to the tip. Bill and feet black. The tail rounded, rather emarginate; feathers broad; more obliquely truncate than in sayus. The bill slender; similar to that of S. fuscus. Length, nearly 7 inches; wing, 3.60; tail, 3.45.

HAB. California coast (Umpqua Valley, Oregon, Newberry), and across by valley of Gila and Upper Rio Grande to New Leon, and south; Mazatlan. Oaxaca (SCL. 1859, 383); Cordova (SCL. 1856, 296); Vera Cruz, temp. and alp. regions, breeding (SUM. M. B. Soc. I, 557); W. Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 60).

The female appears to differ only in the smaller size. A young bird from San Francisco has two bands of rusty on the wing; the shoulders and hinder part of the back tinged with the same.

HABITS. Within our limits the Black Flycatcher has a distribution very nearly corresponding with that of Myiarchus cinerascens. It is found from Oregon and California on the Pacific coast, to the valley of the Rio Grande, and thence south throughout Mexico. It also occurs as a resident in Guatemala. Specimens in the Smithsonian Museum are from various parts of Mexico, from New Mexico, and California.

During his explorations in Northern Mexico, Lieutenant Couch first met with this species at Cadereita, Mexico, in April, occurring in abundance under the high banks of the stream which supplies the town with water. Its habits appeared to him to be much the same with those of the common Phœbe-Bird (Sayornis fuscus). Its nest was supposed to be in the bank. Dr. Kennerly, who found it at Espia, Mexico, could not observe any difference in the habits from those of the Pyrocephalus rubineus. They were both observed in the same vicinity, feeding alike on insects and having the same movements.

In the Department of Vera Cruz, Mr. Sumichrast says that this species is known by the common name of Aguador. It is very common in both the temperate and the colder regions of that State. It nests within the dwelling-houses in the city of Orizaba.

Dr. Kennerly states that after passing the mountains of California, and descending into the valley of the San Gabriel River, he found these birds quite abundant on the Pueblo Creek in New Mexico, though he had noticed none previously. They were generally found perched upon the summit of a bush, from which they would occasionally make short excursions in search of prey. At the season in which they were observed, March, they were rarely found in pairs, from which he inferred they were already hatching.

Dr. Heermann speaks of it as abundant throughout all California, and as constructing its nests in situations similar to those of the common eastern species (S. fuscus). It seems to have a marked predilection for the vicinity of streams and lakes, where it is nearly always to be seen, perched upon a stake or branch. It occasionally darts into the air for an insect, and returns to the same place to renew its watch and to repeat these movements. The nest, composed of mud and mosses and lined with hair, is placed against the rocks, the rafters of a house or bridge, or against the inside of a large hollow tree, and the eggs, four or five in number, are pure white, speckled with red.

Dr. Coues found this Flycatcher a very abundant and permanent resident in the valleys of the Gila and Colorado, and the more southern portions of the Territory of Arizona generally. It was not observed in the immediate vicinity of Fort Whipple, though it was detected a few miles south of that locality. As it has been found on the Pacific coast so much farther north than the latitude of Fort Whipple, he thinks it may yet be met with, at least as a summer visitant to that place. In his journey from Arizona to the Pacific, he ascertained that it is common throughout Southern Arizona, being, among land birds, his most constant companion on the route. Perched generally in pairs upon the dense verdure that in many places overhangs the river, it pursued its constant vocation of securing the vagrant insects around it, constantly uttering its peculiar unmelodious notes. In all its movements the Pewee of the Eastern States was unmistakably reproduced. It was rather shy and wary. In Southern Arizona and California it remains throughout the winter. It seems to delight not only in river bottoms, but also in deep mountain gorges and precipitous cañons with small streams flowing through them.

Dr. Newberry found this species quite common in Northern California, and specimens were also obtained as far to the north as the Umpqua Valley in Oregon. According to Dr. Cooper it is an abundant and resident species in all the lower parts of California, except the Colorado Valley, where he found none later than March 25, as they had all evidently passed on farther north. At San Diego, at that date, the following year (1862), all these birds had nests and eggs, and were there, as elsewhere, the first birds to build. Their nest, he states, is formed of an outer wall of mud about five and a quarter inches wide and three and a half high. It is built like that of the Barn Swallow, in little pellets, piled successively, as they dry, in the shape of a half-cup. They are fastened to a wall, or sometimes placed on a shelf, beam, or ledge of a rock, but are always under some protecting cover, often under a bridge. They are lined with fine grass or moss, and horse or cow hair. The eggs, four or five in number, he describes as pure white, measuring .74 by .55 of an inch.

This bird is said to prefer the vicinity of human habitations, and also to keep about water, on account of the numerous flies they find in such situations. It will often sit for hours at a time on the end of a barn, or some other perch, uttering a monotonous but not unpleasant ditty, which resembles, according to Dr. Cooper, the sound of pittic pittit, alternately repeated, and quite like the cry of the eastern Sayornis fuscus, which is its exact counterpart in habits. It is said to fly only a short distance at a time, turning and dodging quickly in pursuit of its prey, which it captures with a sharp snap of the bill.

This species was met with by Mr. Ridgway only in the vicinity of Sacramento City, Cal., where it seemed to replace our eastern Pewee, having the same familiarity and general habits, and with notes not distinguishable from some belonging to S. fuscus.

The eggs of this species, as described by Dr. Cooper and by Dr. Heermann, are either pure white unspotted, or else white with fine red dots, in this respect resembling the eggs of the S. fuscus, which present the same variations. The measurements of those in my cabinet vary from .75 by .56 of an inch to .78 by .60.

Mr. Salvin says that Sayornis nigricans is a resident species at Dueñas, in Guatemala, where it may always be found at a short distance from the village, up the stream of the river Guacatate. It also occurs about the lake. In its actions it is described as a lively and restless species, in this respect having but little resemblance to the Tyrant Flycatchers. It may always be found near water, generally sitting on a stone on the margin, from which it constantly darts to seize a fly or an insect from the surface. His remarks may, however, refer to the var. aquaticus.

Sayornis fuscus, BAIRD.

PEWEE; PHŒBE-BIRD.

Muscicapa fusca, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 931.—LATHAM, Index, Orn. II, 1790, 483.—VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 68, pl. xl.—BONAP. Obs. Wilson, 1825, no. 115.—IB. Synopsis, 68.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 122; V, 1839, 424, pl. cxx.—IB. Synopsis, 1839, 43.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 223, pl. lxiii.—GIRAUD, Birds L. Island, 1844, 42. Tyrannula fusca, RICH. List, 1837.—BONAP. List, 1838. Tyrannus fuscus, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 312. ? Aulanax fuscus, CABANIS, Cab. Journ. IV, 1856, 1. Muscicapa atra, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 946.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 278. Muscicapa phœbe, LATHAM, Index Orn. II, 1790, 489. _Muscicapa nunciola_, WILSON, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 78, pl. xiii. _Myiobius nunciola_, GRAY, Genera, I, 248. _Muscicapa carolinensis fusca_, BRISSON, Orn. II, 1760, 367. Black-headed Flycatcher, PENNANT, Arc. Zoöl. II, 389, 269. Black-cap Flycatcher, LATHAM, Synopsis, I, 353. Empidias fuscus, CABAN. M. H. II, Sept. 1859, 69 (type).—SCL. Catal. 1862, 234. _Sayornis fuscus_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 184.—SAMUELS, 133.—ALLEN, B. Fla. 1871, 299.

SP. CHAR. Sides of breast and upper parts dull olive-brown, fading slightly towards the tail. Top and sides of head dark brown. A few dull white feathers on the eyelids. Lower parts dull yellowish-white, mixed with brown on the chin, and in some individuals across the breast. Quills brown, the outer primary, secondaries, and tertials edged with dull white. In some individuals the greater coverts faintly edged with dull white. Tail brown; outer edge of lateral feather dull white; outer edges of the rest like the back. Tibiæ brown. Bill and feet black. Bill slender, edges nearly straight. Tail rather broad and slightly forked. Third quill longest; second and fourth nearly equal; the first shorter than sixth. Length, 7 inches; wing, 3.42; tail, 3.30.

HAB. Eastern North America; Eastern Mexico to Mirador and Orizaba. Cuba (CABAN. J. IV, 1); Xalapa, (SCL. List, 234); Vera Cruz, winter (SUMICHRAST, M. B. S. I, 557); San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 773, rare).

In autumn, and occasionally in early spring, the colors are much clearer and brighter. Whole lower parts sometimes bright sulphur-yellow; above, greenish-olive; top and sides of the head tinged with sooty. In the young of the year the colors are much duller; all the wing-coverts broadly tipped with light ferruginous, as also the extreme ends of the wings and tail-feathers. The brown is prevalent on the whole throat and breast; the hind part of the back, rump, and tail strongly ferruginous.

HABITS. The Pewee, or Phœbe-Bird, a well-known harbinger of early spring, is a common species throughout the whole of eastern North America, from the Rio Grande, on the southwest, to the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on the northeast, and as far west as the Missouri River.

Dr. Woodhouse found it common both throughout Texas and in the Indian Territory. It was taken by Sumichrast in the Department of Vera Cruz, but he was in doubt whether it occurs there as a resident or is only migratory. It was observed at San Antonio, Texas, but only as a migrant, by both Dresser and Heermann; but at Houston, in that State, it evidently remains and breeds, as individuals were seen there in June by Dresser. Specimens were taken in February at Brownsville, Texas, by Lieutenant Couch, and afterwards in March on the opposite side of the river,—in Tamaulipas, Mexico.

In South Carolina, Dr. Coues found these birds most common in the months of February and March, and again in October and November. He had no doubt that some remain and pass the winter, and that others are resident in the State during the summer months, but believes the great majority go farther north to breed.

In Western Maine it is a common summer visitant, breeding there in considerable numbers. Professor Verrill states that it is frequently seen there the first of March, becoming quite common by the first of April. It is also a summer visitant about Calais, where it breeds, but is rather rare. At Hamilton, Canada, Mr. McIlwraith reports it as a common summer resident, arriving about April 15.

In Pennsylvania this species arrives among the earliest spring visitants, sometimes as early as the first week in March, and continues in that region until late in October. Wilson has seen specimens as late as the 12th of November. He states that in the month of February he met with them feeding on the smilax berries in the low, swampy woods of North and South Carolina. They were already chanting their simple, plaintive notes. In Massachusetts they usually arrive from the 15th to the 25th of March. In the warm spring of 1870 they were already abundant by the 10th. They were nesting early in April, and their first brood was ready to fly by the middle of May. They have two broods in a season, and occasionally perhaps three, as I have known fresh eggs in the middle of August. They leave late in October, unless the season be unusually open, when a few linger into November.

Their well-known and monotonous, though not unpleasing, note of pē-w[ēē], or, as some hear it, phœ-bēē, is uttered with more force and frequency in early spring than later in the season, though they repeat the note throughout their residence north. It usually has some favorite situation, in which it remains all the morning, watching for insects and continually repeating its simple song. As he sits, he occasionally flirts his tail and darts out after each passing insect, always returning to the same twig.

This species is attracted both to the vicinity of water and to the neighborhood of dwellings, probably for the same reason,—the abundance of insects in either situation. They are a familiar, confiding, and gentle bird, attached to localities, and returning to them year after year. They build in sheltered situations, as under a bridge, under a projecting rock, in the porches of houses, and in similar situations. I have known them to build on a small shelf in the porch of a dwelling; against the wall of a railroad-station, within reach of the passengers; and under a projecting window-sill, in full view of the family, entirely unmoved by the presence of the latter at mealtime.

Their nests are constructed of small pellets of mud, placed in layers one above the other, in semicircular form, covered with mosses, and warmly lined with fine straw and feathers. When the nest is placed on a flat surface,—a shelf or a projecting rock,—it is circular in form, and mud is not made use of. A nest of this description, taken by Mr. Vickary in Lynn, and containing five eggs, was constructed on a ledge, protected by an overhanging rock, only a few feet from the ground. It measured four and a half inches in diameter and three in height. The cavity was nearly three inches wide and one and a half deep. Its base was constructed of layers of fine leaves, strips of bark, roots of plants, and other miscellaneous materials. The great mass of the nest itself was made up of fine mosses closely interwoven, and strengthened by an intermixture of firmer plant fibres. The whole was carefully and softly lined with strips of the inner bark of various deciduous shrubs, fine roots, and finer grasses. The semicircular nests are usually placed out of reach of the weather under some projecting shelter.

Wilson states that they often nest in eaves, and occasionally in an open well, five or six feet down, among the interstices of the side-walls. Nuttall has known them to nest in an empty kitchen.

Their attachment to a locality, when once chosen, is remarkable, and is often persevered in under the most discouraging circumstances. In one instance, Nuttall states that a nest was built in the boathouse at Fresh Pond, Cambridge,—a place so common as to be almost a thoroughfare. Although with its young brood this nest was torn down by ruffian hands, the female immediately built a new one in the same spot, and laid five additional eggs. This was lined with the silvery shreds of a manilla rope, taken from the loft over the boathouse.

Besides the common call-note, from which these birds derive their name, they have, during the love-season, a low twittering song with which they entertain their mates, but which is heard only when the birds are in company, and for a brief season.

The flight of the Pewee is an alternation of soaring and a succession of light fluttering motions, more rapid when pursuing its prey than in its ordinary movements. Its crest is usually erected when it is in motion, or on the lookout for insects.

Mr. Audubon found these birds in full song in Florida during the winter, and as lively as in spring, but met with none breeding south of Charleston. They leave Louisiana in February, and return to it in October. They feed largely on berries, especially during the winter, and Mr. Maynard found some in the spring of 1868 with hawthorn berries in their stomachs.

The eggs of the Pewee measure .80 of an inch in length and .60 in breadth. They are of a rounded oval shape, pointed at one end and much larger at the other. Their ground-color is a pure bright white, and generally unspotted; but a certain proportion, one set in every five or six, is distinctly marked with reddish-brown dots at the larger end.

Sayornis sayus, BAIRD.

SAY’S PEWEE.

Muscicapa saya, BONAP. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 20, pl. xi, fig. 3.—AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 428, pl. ccclix.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 217, pl. lix. Tyrannus saya, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 311. Myiobius saya, GRAY, Genera, I, 1844-49, 249. _Ochthœca sayĭ_, CABANIS, Wiegmann Archiv, 1847, I, 255 (not type). Tyrannula saya, BONAP. Conspectus, 1850.—MAX. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 183. Aulanax sayus, CABANIS, Journ. Orn. 1856, 2. Tyrannula pallida, SWAINSON, Syn. Birds Mex. No. 15, in Taylor’s Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 367. Sayornis pallida, BONAP.—SCL. P. Z. S. 1857, 204. Sayornis sayus, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 185.—IB. M. B. II, Birds, 9.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 320. Theromyias saya, CABAN. M. H. II, Sept. 1859, 68 (type).

SP. CHAR. Above and on the sides of the head, neck, and breast, grayish-brown, darker on the crown; region about the eye dusky. The chin, throat, and upper part of the breast similar to the back, but rather lighter and tinged with the color of the rest of the lower parts, which are pale cinnamon. Under wing-coverts pale rusty-white. The wings of a rather deeper tint than the back, with the exterior vanes and tips of the quills darker. Edges of the greater and secondary coverts, of the outer vane of the outer primary, and of the secondaries and tertials, dull white. The upper tail-coverts and tail nearly black. Edge of outer vane of exterior tail-feather white. Bill dark brown, rather paler beneath. The feet brown. Second, third, and fourth quills nearly equal; fifth nearly equal to sixth; sixth much shorter than the fifth. Tail broad, emarginate. Tarsi with a posterior row of scales. Length, 7 inches; wing, 4.30; tail, 3.35.

HAB. Missouri and central High Plains, westward to the Pacific and south to Mexico. Xalapa (SCL. 1859, 366); Orizaba (SCL. List, 199); Vera Cruz, winter? (SUM. M. Bost. Soc. I, 557); S. E. Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 473, breeds); W. Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 60).

The young of the year have the upper parts slightly tinged with ferruginous; two broad (ferruginous) bands on the wings formed by the tips of the first and second coverts. The quills and tail rather darker than in an adult specimen.

Autumnal specimens are simply more deeply colored than spring examples, the plumage softer and more blended.

HABITS. Say’s Flycatcher has an extended distribution throughout western North America, from Mexico, on the south, to the plains of the Saskatchewan on the north, and from the Rio Grande and the Missouri to the Pacific Ocean.

It was first discovered by Mr. Titian Peale on the Arkansas River, near the Rocky Mountains, and described by Bonaparte. Mr. Peale noticed a difference in its voice from that of the common S. fuscus, and found it nesting in a tree, building a nest of mud and moss, lined with dried grasses. Its young were ready to fly in July. Richardson obtained individuals of this species at the Carlton House, May 13. It is not given by Cooper and Suckley in their Zoölogy of Washington Territory, but Dr. Newberry found it not uncommon throughout both Oregon and California.

Mr. Sumichrast ascertained the presence of this bird within the Department of Vera Cruz, but whether there as resident or as exclusively migratory he was not able to state. It has also been found in winter throughout Mexico. Mr. J. H. Clark met with it near Fort Webster, in New Mexico, and describes it as particularly abundant about the copper mines. One of the shafts near the fort, and which was partially filled up, served as a sinkhole for the offal of the town, and around this quite a number of these birds could always be seen in pursuit of flies and insects attracted to the place. Mr. Clark observed that their sudden darting from their perch and their instantaneous return were not always attended with the capture of an insect, but seemed at times to be done only for amusement or exercise. Mr. Dresser first noticed these birds in November, when walking in the gardens of the arsenal at San Antonio. On his journey to Eagle Pass in December, he saw several daily, generally in pairs. They would perch on a bush by the roadside, occasionally darting off after some insect, and, as soon as he drew near, would fly off to a convenient perch some distance ahead, thus keeping in advance for miles. During the months of January and February they were not uncommon, but after that he lost sight of them altogether. They seemed to prefer the open country, as he generally found them on the prairies, and never in the mesquite thickets. Their stomachs were found to contain small insects.

Dr. Woodhouse frequently met with these birds in Western Texas and in New Mexico. They seemed more silent and more shy than the fuscus, but otherwise similar in their habits.

Dr. Kennerly met with this species at Bill Williams’s Fork, New Mexico, February 10, 1854. He states that he found them common in Texas, and as far to the westward as the Great Colorado River. They built their nests under the cliffs along the stream, and in notes and in every other respect closely resembled the common Pewee.

Dr. Heermann mentions finding this species abundant in Southern California. It was more especially plentiful in the fall, at the time of its migration southward. He also found it in New Mexico, in the northern part of Texas, near El Paso, and in Sacramento Valley, though somewhat rare. In migrating, it prefers the deep valleys bordered by high hills, but also occurs on the open plains, where, perched on the stalk of some dead weed, or on a prominent rock, it darts forth in pursuit of its prey, to return to the same point.

In Arizona, Dr. Coues found this Flycatcher common throughout the Territory. At Fort Whipple it was a summer resident. It was one of the first of the migratory birds to make its appearance in spring, arriving early in March, and remained among the last, staying until October. It winters in the Colorado Valley and the southern portions of the Territory generally. He found it frequenting almost exclusively open plains, in stunted chaparral and sage brush. In some other points of habits it is said to differ remarkably from our other Flycatchers. It does not habitually frequent cañons, rocky gorges, and secluded banks of streams, as does S. fuscus, nor does it inhabit forests, like other Flycatchers.

Dr. Cooper regards this bird as mostly a winter visitor in the southern and western parts of California, where he has seen none later than March. In summer it is said to migrate to the great interior plains as far to the north as latitude 60°. It arrives from the north at Los Angeles in September, and perhaps earlier in the northern part of the State, and possibly breeds there east of the Sierras. Mr. Allen found it common in Colorado Territory, among the mountains.

In the arid portions of the Great Basin this species was often seen by Mr. Ridgway. In its natural state it preferred rocky shores of lakes or rivers, or similar places in the cañons of the mountains, where it attached its bulky down-lined nests to the inside of small caves or recesses in the rocks, usually building them upon a small projecting shelf. Wherever man has erected a building in those desert wastes,—as at the stage-stations along the road, or in the mining towns,—it immediately assumed the familiarity of our eastern Pewee, at once taking possession of any outbuilding or any abandoned dwelling. Its notes differ widely from those of the S. fuscus and S. nigricans, the common one consisting of a wailing peer, varied by a tremulous twitter, and more resembling certain tones of the Wood Pewees (Contopus virens and richardsoni), with others which occasionally call to mind the Myiarchus cinerascens.

This species has been observed as far to the east as Racine, Wisconsin, where it was taken by Dr. P. R. Hoy. The specimen was sent to Mr. Cassin, and its identity fully established. Dr. Palmer found it breeding near Fort Wingate, in Arizona, June 11, 1869, and Mr. Ridgway obtained its nests and eggs at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, May 23, 1868. One of these nests (No. 13,588) he describes as a nearly globular mass, more flattened on top, 3.50 inches in depth by 4.00 in diameter, and composed chiefly of spiders’ webs, with which is mixed very fine vegetable fibres, of various descriptions. This composition forms the bulk of the nest, and makes a closely matted and tenacious, but very soft structure; the neat but rather shallow cavity is lined solely with the grayish-white down of wild ducks. The nest was placed on a shelf inside a small cave on the shore of the island, at about ten or twelve feet from the water.

Their eggs are rounded at one end and pointed at the other, measure .82 of an inch in length by .65 in breadth. They are of a uniform chalky white, and, so far as I am aware, entirely unspotted.

GENUS CONTOPUS, CABANIS.

Contopus, CABANIS, Journ. für Ornith. III, Nov. 1855, 479. (Type, Muscicapa virens, L.)

[Line drawing: Contopus borealis. 942 ♂]

GEN. CHAR. Tarsus very short, but stout; less than the middle toe and scarcely longer than the hinder; considerably less than the culmen. Bill quite broad at the base; wider than half the culmen. Tail moderately forked. Wings very long and much pointed, reaching beyond the middle of the tail; the first primary about equal to the fourth. All the primaries slender and rather acute, but not attenuated. Head moderately crested. Color olive above, pale yellowish beneath, with a darker patch on the sides of the breast. Under tail-coverts streaked in most species. A tuft of cottony-white feathers on each side of the rump (concealed in most species).

This genus is pre-eminently characterized among North American Flycatchers by the very short tarsi, and the long and much pointed wings.

In most other genera, as Sayoris, Myiarchus, and Empidonax, a trace of a cottony tuft may be discovered by careful search on the flanks; but in the present genus, there is, in addition, the tufts on the rump, not found in the others. The species are as follows:—

Species and Varieties.

A. Cottony patch of white feathers on sides of the rump greatly developed, and conspicuous. Rictal bristles very short (about one fourth the length of the bill). Lower parts distinctly and abruptly white medially (somewhat interrupted on the breast).

1. C. borealis. First quill longer than the fourth, generally exceeding the third. Wing, 4.00 to 4.40; tail, 2.90 to 3.00; culmen, .90; tarsus, .60. Above dark olive-plumbeous, the tertials edged with whitish; lower parts a lighter shade of the same, laterally and across the breast (narrowly), the throat and middle line of the abdomen being abruptly white. Young not different. Hab. Northern parts of North America, to the north border of United States; on the mountain-ranges, farther south, on the interior ranges, penetrating through Mexico to Costa Rica.

B. Cottony patch on side of rump rudimentary and concealed. Rictal bristles strong (one half, or more, the length of the bill). Lower parts not distinctly white medially.

a. First primary shorter than fifth, but exceeding the sixth. Tail shorter than wings.

2. C. pertinax. Wing more than 3.50. Grayish-olive, becoming lighter on the throat (indistinctly) and abdomen (decidedly). No distinct light bands on the wing. Rictal bristles about half the length of bill.

The olive of a grayish cast, and not darker on the crown. Wing, 4.45; tail, 3.90; depth of its fork, .35; culmen, .92; tarsus, .70. Hab. Mexico, generally north into Arizona (Fort Whipple, COUES) var. pertinax.

The olive of a sooty cast, and darker on the crown. Wing, 3.60; tail, 3.10; its fork, .20; culmen, .83; tarsus, .61. Hab. Costa Rica var. lugubris.[81]

3. C. brachytarsus. Wing less than 3.00; colors much as in pertinax, var. pertinax, but wing-bands distinct, breast less grayish, and pileum decidedly darker than the back. Rictal bristles two thirds as long as the bill.

Wing, 2.65; tail, 2.55; culmen, .60; tarsus, .53. Hab. Panama var. brachytarsus.[82]

Wing, 2.90; tail, 2.55; culmen, .67; tarsus, .53. Hab. Yucatan var. schotti.[83]

b. First primary shorter than the sixth. Tail variable.

4. C. caribæus. Bill much depressed, very long and broad, the sides more nearly parallel on the basal than on the terminal half; rictal bristles very strong (two thirds, or more, the length of the bill). Above olivaceous, generally rather dark, but varying in tint. Beneath whitish, or dull light-ochraceous, more brownish along the sides and (more faintly) across the breast. Axillars and lining of the wing deep light-ochraceous.

Tail longer than wings; bill moderately depressed; rictal bristles three fourths as long as the bill.

Dark greenish-olive above; beneath dingy ochrey-yellowish. Wing, 2.80; tail, 2.90; culmen, .78; tarsus, .58. Hab. Cuba var. caribæus.[84]

Dark olive-gray above; beneath whitish, with scarcely any yellowish tinge. Wing, 3.00; tail, 3.05; culmen, .70; tarsus, .59. Hab. Hayti var. hispaniolensis.[85]

Brownish-olive above; beneath deep dingy ochrey-yellowish. Wing, 2.85; tail, 2.90; culmen, .66; tarsus, .56. Hab. Jamaica var. pallidus.[86]

Tail shorter than wing; bill excessively depressed; rictal bristles only one half as long as the bill.

Olive-plumbeous above; beneath dingy white (not interrupted on the breast); tinged posteriorly with sulphury (not ochrey) yellow; wing-bands pale ash. Wing, 2.80; tail, 2.65; culmen, .79; tarsus, .63. Hab. Bahamas var. bahamensis.[87]

C. First quill much longer than fifth (sometimes equal to fourth). Tail much shorter than the wing. Bill much smaller, less depressed, and more triangular; rictal bristles about one half the bill.

5. C. virens. Colors of caribæus var. bahamensis, but rather more olivaceous above, and more distinctly tinged with sulphur-yellow posteriorly beneath. Lining of the wings, and axillars, without any ochraceous tinge; lower tail-coverts distinctly grayish centrally.

Whitish of the lower parts not interrupted on the breast. Wing, 3.40; tail, 2.90; culmen, .67; tarsus, .54. Hab. Eastern Province of United States var. virens.

Whitish of medial lower parts interrupted by a grayish wash across the breast. Wing, 3.40; tail, 2.65 to 2.70; culmen, .70; tarsus, .54 to .56. Hab. Western Province of United States, south throughout Middle America to Ecuador var. richardsoni.[88]

[81] Contopus lugubris, LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VIII, 1865, 134 (Costa Rica, Baranca).

[82] Contopus brachytarsus, SCLATER, Cat. Am. B. 1862, 231. (Empidonax brachyt. SCL. Ibis, 1859, p. 441.) A strongly marked race, but distinguishable from schotti only by just appreciable differences in color (being paler beneath), and shorter wing and bill, the latter broader at the tip.

[83] Contopus (brachytarsus var. ?), var. schotti, LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 1869, 202 (Yucatan). Very nearly related to C. richardsoni, but easily distinguished by the very different proportions.

[84] Contopus caribæus (D’ORB.) Muscipeta caribæa, D’ORB. (R. de la Sagra), Hist. Cuba, 1839, 77.

[85] Contopus caribæus, var. hispaniolensis, BRYANT. Tyrannula caribæa, var. hispaniolensis, BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. XI, 1866, 91.

[86] Contopus caribæus, var. pallidus (GOSSE). Myiobius pallidus, GOSSE, Birds Jam. 166. Blacicus pallidus, SCL. P. Z. S. 1861, 77. Contopus p. SCL. Catal. Am. B. 1862, 231.—MARCH, Pr. Ph. A. N. Sc. 1863, 290.

[87] Contopus (caribæus var. ?) bahamensis, BRYANT. Empidonax bahamensis, BRYANT, List of Birds of the Bahamas, 1859, p. 7. Young with the colors more ashy above, and less yellowish beneath; the upper parts with feathers faintly tipped with paler, causing an obsolete transverse mottling; two distinct bands on wing of pale ochraceous.

Of the above, caribæus, hispaniolensis, and pallidus are clearly to be referred to one species; the C. bahamensis also has many characters in common with them, and no violence would be done by referring it, also, to the same type; it is, however, more modified from the standard than any of the others, though the modifications are not of importance.

[88] These measurements are not only those of United States and Mexican examples, but also of Middle American examples (“sordidulus,” SCLATER, and “plebeius,” CABANIS), and of a series from Ecuador and New Granada (= “bogotensis,” SCLATER). In comparing a quite large number of such Middle American and Equatorial specimens with the large series of Northern examples, we have been utterly unable to appreciate even the slightest difference between them.

The C. punensis (LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 1869, 237; Puna Island, Guayaquil) is founded upon an immature specimen, so the characters of the species cannot be given with exactness. The relationship appears very close to the C. caribæus, there being the same large, very depressed bill, with the long bristles reaching nearly to its tip, and the tail about as long as the wing; while the upper plumage has the light faint transverse mottling seen in the young caribæus, var. bahamensis, and the lining of the wing ochraceous. In colors, however, the two are very different, the young of punensis being ashy-green, instead of pure ash, on the back, the crown very much darker, instead of not appreciably so; the wing-bands are white instead of ochraceous, while the breast and sides are dull sulphur-yellowish, instead of ashy, without any yellow tinge. The measurements are as follows: Wing, 2.60; tail, 2.60; culmen, .72; tarsus, .56.

The C. ochraceus, SCLATER & SALVIN (P. Z. S. 1869, 419; SALV. Ibis, 1870, 115), of Costa Rica, we have not seen. From the description, however, it seems to be scarcely different from C. lugubris, and it is probably the same. The size (wing, 3.30) appears to be a little smaller, and the belly more deeply yellowish.

Contopus borealis, BAIRD.

OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER.

Tyrannus borealis, SW. & RICH. F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 141, plate. Myiobius borealis, GRAY, Genera, I, 248. Muscicapa cooperi, NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 282.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 422; V, 1839, 422, pl. clxxiv.—IB. Synopsis, 1839, 41.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 212, pl. lviii. Tyrannus cooperi, BONAP. List, 1838.—NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 298. _Contopus cooperi_, CABANIS, Journal für Ornithol. III, Nov. 1855, 479. Muscicapa inornata, NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 282. _Contopus borealis_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 188.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 169.—SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 230.—SAMUELS, 135.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 323. Contopus mesoleucus, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 43.—IB. Ibis, 1859, 122, 151. Tyrannus nigricans, MAX. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 184.

SP. CHAR. Wings long, much pointed; the second quill longest; the first longer than the third. Tail deeply forked. Tarsi short. The upper parts ashy-brown, showing darker brown centres of the feathers; this is eminently the case on the top of the head; the sides of the head and neck, of the breast and body, resembling the back, but with the edges of the feathers tinged with gray, leaving a darker central streak. The chin, throat, narrow line down the middle of the breast and body, abdomen, and lower tail-coverts white, or sometimes with a faint tinge of yellow. The lower tail-coverts somewhat streaked with brown in the centre. On each side of the rump, generally concealed by the wings, is an elongated bunch of white silky feathers. The wings and tail very dark brown, the former with the edges of the secondaries and tertials edged with dull white. The lower wing-coverts and axillaries grayish-brown. The tips of the primaries and tail-feathers rather paler. Feet and upper mandible black, lower mandible brown. The young of the year similar, but the color duller; edges of wing-feathers dull rusty instead of grayish-white. The feet light brown. Length, 7.50; wing, 4.33; tail, 3.30; tarsus, .60.

HAB. Northern portions of whole of North America, throughout Rocky Mountains, south through elevated regions of Mexico to Costa Rica. Localities: Oaxaca, high regions, Oct. (SCL. 1858, 301); Xalapa (SCL. 1859, 366); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 122); Costa Rica (LAWR. IX, 115); Veragua (SALV. 1870, 199); San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 474, winter).

There is wonderfully little variation in this species, both in coloration and size, with different regions; in fact none other than individual can be observed. Contrary to the usual rule, spring specimens have a more appreciable sulphur-yellow tinge below.

HABITS. This still comparatively rare species was first obtained by Richardson and described by Swainson. The specimen was shot on the Saskatchewan. No other was taken, and no information was obtained in reference to its habits. It appears to have been next met with by Mr. John Bethune, in Cambridge, June 7, 1830, in the woods of Mount Auburn. This and a second specimen, obtained soon after, were females, on the point of incubation. A third female was shot in the following year, June 21. Supposed to be a new species, it was described by Mr. Nuttall as Tyrannus cooperi. All the specimens procured had their stomachs filled with torn fragments of bees, wasps, and similar insects.

Mr. Nuttall, who watched the motions of two other living individuals of this species, states that they appeared tyrannical and quarrelsome even with each other. Their attacks were always accompanied with a whining, querulous twitter. The disputes seemed to be about the occupancy of certain territories. One bird, a female, appeared to confine herself to a small clump of red cedars, in the midst of a sandy piece of forest. From the tree-tops she kept a sharp lookout for passing insects, and pursued them, as they appeared, with great vigor and success, sometimes chasing them to the ground, and returning to her perch with a mouthful which she devoured at her leisure. When she resumed her position, she would occasionally quiver her wings and tail, erect her crest, keeping up a whistling call of pŭ-pŭ, uttered with variations. Besides this call the male had a short song which sounded like ch’-phe’bēē.

The nest of this pair Mr. Nuttall discovered in the horizontal branch of a tall red cedar, fifty feet from the ground. It was made externally of interlaced dead twigs of the cedar, lined with wiry stems, and dry grasses, and fragments of lichens. It contained three young, which remained in the nest twenty-three days, and were fed on beetles and other insects. Before they left their nests they could fly as well as their parents. The male bird was very watchful, and would frequently follow Mr. Nuttall half a mile. They were in no way timid, and allowed him to investigate them and their premises without any signs of alarm.

In 1832 the same pair, apparently, took possession of a small juniper, near the tree they had occupied the year before, in which, at the height of fifteen feet, they placed their nest. It contained four eggs which, except in their superior size, were precisely similar to those of the Wood Pewee, yellowish cream-color, with dark brown and lavender-purple spots, thinly dispersed. After removing two of these eggs, the others were accidentally rolled out of the nest. The pair constructed another nest, again in a cedar-tree, at a short distance. The next year they did not return to that locality. Mr. Nuttall afterwards met with individuals of this species in the fir woods on the Columbia.

On the 8th of August, 1832, Mr. Audubon, in company with Mr. Nuttall, obtained the specimen of this species in Brookline, Mass., from which his drawing was made. In the course of his journey farther east, Audubon found it in Maine, on the Magdeleine Islands, and on the coast of Labrador. He afterwards met with it in Texas.

Mr. Boardman reports the Olive-sided Flycatcher as having of late years been very abundant during the summer in the dead woods about the lakes west of Calais, where formerly they were quite uncommon. Mr. Verrill mentions it as a summer visitant in Oxford County, in the western part of the State, but not very common, and as undoubtedly breeding there. It was never observed there before the 20th of May. It is said to be more abundant at Lake Umbagog.

In Western Massachusetts Mr. Allen regards this bird as a not very rare summer visitant. It arrives about May 12, breeds in high open woods, and is seldom seen at any distance from them. It leaves about the middle of September.

Mr. William Brewster, who resides in Cambridge, in the neighborhood in which this species was first observed by Mr. Nuttall, informs me that these birds still continue to be found in that locality. He has himself met with five or six of their nests, all of which were placed near the extremity of some long horizontal branch, usually that of a pitch-pine, but on one occasion in that of an apple-tree. The eggs were laid about the 15th of June, in only one instance earlier. The females were very restless, and left their nest long before he had reached it, and, sitting on some dead branch continually uttered, in a complaining tone, notes resembling the syllables pill-pill-pill, occasionally varying to pu-pu-pu. The males were fierce and quarrelsome, and attacked indiscriminately everything that came near their domain, sometimes seeming even to fall out with their mates, fighting savagely with them for several seconds. When incubation was at all far advanced, the birds evinced considerable courage, darting down to within a few inches of his head, if he approached their nest, at the same time loudly snapping their bills.

A nest of this Flycatcher was found in Lynn, Mass., by Mr. George O. Welch, in June, 1858. It was built on the top of a dead cedar, and contained three eggs. It was a flat, shallow structure, five inches in its external diameter, and with a very imperfectly defined cavity. The greatest depth was less than half an inch. It was coarsely and loosely built of strips of the bark and fine twigs of the red cedar, roots, mosses, dry grasses, etc. The nest was so shallow, that, in climbing to it, two of the eggs were rolled out and broken.

Mr. Charles S. Paine has found this bird breeding in Randolph, Vt. On one occasion he found its nest on the top of a tall hemlock-tree, but was not able to get to it.

In Philadelphia, Mr. Trumbull found this species very rare. It passed north early in May, and south in September. Near Hamilton, Canada, it is very rare, none having been seen; and two specimens obtained near Toronto are all that Mr. McIlwraith is aware of having been taken in Canada West.

Dr. Hoy informs me that this species used to be quite common near Racine, frequenting the edges of thick woods, where they nested. They have now become quite scarce. Some years since, he found one of their nests, just abandoned by the young birds, which their parents were engaged in feeding. It was on the horizontal branch of a maple, and was composed wholly of usneæ.

In Washington Territory this bird appears to be somewhat more common than in other portions of the United States. Dr. Suckley obtained a specimen at Fort Steilacoom, July 10, 1856. It was not very abundant about Puget Sound, and showed a preference for shady thickets and dense foliage, where it was not easily shot. Dr. Cooper speaks of it as very common, arriving early in May and frequenting the borders of woods, where, stationed on the tops of tall dead trees, it repeats a loud and melancholy cry throughout the day, during the whole of summer. It frequents small pine groves along the coast, and also in the interior, and remains until late in September.

In California Dr. Cooper found this species rather common in the Coast Range towards Santa Cruz, where they had nests in May; but as these were built in high inaccessible branches, he was not able to examine them. He also found it at Lake Tahoe in September.

This species was only met with by Mr. Ridgway in the pine woods high up on the East Humboldt, Wahsatch, and Uintah Mountains. There it was breeding, but was nowhere abundant, not more than two pairs being observed within an area of several miles. They preferred the rather open pine woods, and were shot from the highest branches. Their common note was a mellow puer, much like one of the whistling notes of the Cardinal Grosbeak (Cardinalis virginianus).

Mr. Dresser states it to be not uncommon near San Antonio in the winter season. Dr. Heermann mentions that two specimens of this species were obtained, to his knowledge, on the Cosumnes River, in California. It has been taken in winter, in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, by Mr. Boucard, and has been met with at Jalapa, and even as far south as Guatemala.

A single specimen of this bird was taken, August 29, 1840, at Nenortalik, Greenland, and sent to Copenhagen.

The eggs of this species measure .86 of an inch in length by .62 in breadth, and are rounded at one end and sharply tapering at the other. The ground-color is a rich cream-color with a roseate tint. They are beautifully marked around the larger end with a ring of confluent spots of lilac, purple, and red-brown. These vary in number and in the size of this crown, but the markings are invariably about the larger end, as in Contopus virens.

Contopus pertinax, CABANIS & HEINE.

MEXICAN OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER.

Contopus pertinax, CAB. et HEIN. Mus. Hein. II, p. 72.—SCLATER, Catal. Am. B. 1862, 231.—COUES, Pr. Ac. Phil. 1866, 60.—ELLIOT, Illust. B. Am. I, pl. viii.—COOPER, Geol. Surv. Calif. Orn. I, 324.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 324. _Contopus borealis_, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 301; 1859, 43; Ibis, 1859, 122, 440.

SP. CHAR. Nearly uniformly olive-gray, lighter on the throat and abdominal region, where is a strong tinge of ochraceous-yellow; feathers of the wings with faintly lighter edges. Length about 8.00; wing, 4.45; tail, 3.90; depth of its fork, .35; culmen, .92; tarsus, .70. Rictal bristles long, about half the bill; lower mandible whitish. Young. Similar, but with a stronger ochraceous tinge on the abdomen and lining of the wings, and two distinct ochraceous bands across the wing.

HAB. Mexico generally, into southern borders of United States (Fort Whipple, Arizona; DR. COUES).

HABITS. Dr. Coues found this species a rare summer resident at Fort Whipple, where a single specimen was taken August 20, in good plumage. This was its first introduction into the fauna of the United States. It is one of several Mexican and peninsular birds found in Upper Arizona, probably following the course of the valley of the Great Colorado River. No observations were made in reference to its habits.

This species is abundant in the Department of Vera Cruz, according to Mr. Sumichrast, who gives it as confined to the alpine region. He found both it and C. virens common in the mountains of Orizaba, between the height of 3,600 and 7,500 feet.

Contopus virens, CABANIS.

WOOD PEWEE.

Muscicapa virens, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 327.—GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 936.—LATHAM, Index Orn.—LICHT. Verz. 1823, 563.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 285.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 93; V, 1839, 425, pl. cxv.—Ib. Synopsis, 1839, 42.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 231, pl. lxiv.—GIRAUD, Birds L. Island, 1844, 43. Muscicapa querula, VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 68, pl. xxxix (not of WILSON). Muscicapa rapax, WILSON, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 81, pl. xiii, f. 5. Tyrannula virens, RICH. App. Back’s Voyage.—BONAP. List, 1838. Myiobius virens, GRAY. Tyrannus virens, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 316. Contopus virens, CABANIS, Journal für Ornithologie, III, Nov. 1855, 479.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 190.—SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 231.—SAMUELS, 137.

SP. CHAR. The second quill longest; the third a little shorter; the first shorter than the fourth; the latter nearly .40 longer than the fifth. The primaries more than an inch longer than the secondaries. The upper parts, sides of the head, neck, and breast, dark olivaceous-brown, the latter rather paler, the head darker. A narrow white ring round the eye. The lower parts pale yellowish, deepest on the abdomen; across the breast tinged with ash. This pale ash sometimes occupies the whole of the breast, and even occasionally extends up to the chin. It is also sometimes glossed with olivaceous. The wings and tail dark brown; generally deeper than in S. fuscus. Two narrow bands across the wing, the outer edge of first primary and of the secondaries and tertials, dull white. The edges of the tail-feathers like the back; the outer one scarcely lighter. Upper mandible black; the lower yellow, but brown at the tip. Length, 6.15; wing, 3.50; tail, 3.05.

HAB. Eastern North America to the borders of the high Central Plains. Localities: ? Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 122); Mexico (SCL. Ibis, I, 441); Cuba? (CAB. J. III, 479; GUNDL. Rep. 1865, 239); Costa Rica (CAB. J. 1861, 248; LAWR. IX, 115); Coban (SCL. List); Vera Cruz, alpine region, breeds (SUM. M. Bost. Soc. I, 557); San Antonio, Texas and Eastern Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 474, breeds).

Young birds are duller in plumage; the whitish markings of wing tinged with ferruginous; the lower mandible more dusky.

HABITS. The common Wood Pewee of eastern North America occurs in abundance from the Atlantic to the great plains, and from Texas to New Brunswick. It breeds from South Carolina and Texas north. It is found in Central and Southern Maine, but is not so abundant as it is farther south. It is found near St. Stephens, N. B., and breeds in that vicinity, but is not common. It is a summer visitant at Norway, Me., but Professor Verrill states that it is much less common than in Massachusetts, where it arrives the last of May. At Hamilton, in Canada, Mr. McIlwraith records this species as abundant in the summer, arriving there the middle of May. I am not aware of its having been taken north of the 45th parallel of latitude, with the exception of one at Red River, Minnesota, and another at Fort William by Mr. Kennicott. It is said by Dr. Coues to be a summer resident of South Carolina from the middle of April to the middle of October, and Mr. Dresser states that he found it very common in the wooded river-bottoms near San Antonio during the summer, not arriving there until late in April or early in May. Their call-note, he states, is a low prolonged whistle. Their stomachs were found to contain minute coleopterous insects. Dr. Woodhouse also speaks of it as common in Texas and in the Indian Territory. In the Department of Vera Cruz, Mr. Sumichrast found this species, as well as the Contopus pertinax, common in the mountains of Orizaba, between the height of 3,600 and 7,500 feet.

In Pennsylvania, Wilson states that the Wood Pewee is the latest of the summer birds in arriving, seldom coming before the 12th or 15th of May. He found it frequenting the shady high-timbered woods, where there is little underwood and an abundance of dead twigs and branches. It was generally found in low situations. He adds that it builds its nest on the upper side of a limb or branch, formed outwardly of moss and lined with various soft materials, and states that the female lays five white eggs, and that the brood leave the nest about the middle of June. Probably the last statement is correct as applied to Pennsylvania, but the intimation as to the color of the egg and some of the characteristics of the nest is so inaccurate as to make it doubtful whether Wilson could have ever seen the nest for himself.

This species, like all its family, is a very expert catcher of insects, even the most minute, and has a wonderfully quick perception of their near presence, even when the light of day has nearly gone and in the deep gloom of thick woods. It takes its station on the end of a low dead limb, from which it darts out in quest of insects, sometimes for a single individual, which it seizes with a peculiar snap of its bill; and, frequently meeting insect after insect, it keeps up a constant snapping sound as it passes on, and finally returns to its post to resume its watch. During this watch it occasionally is heard to utter a low twitter, with a quivering movement of the wings and tail, and more rarely to enunciate a louder but still feeble call-note, sounding like pēē-ē. These notes are continued until dark, and are also uttered throughout the season.

Mr. Nuttall states that this species at times displays a tyrannical disposition, and that it has been observed to chase a harmless Sparrow to the ground, because it happened to approach his station for collecting insects.

According to Mr. Audubon, some of these birds spend the winter months in the extreme Southern States, Louisiana and Florida, where they feed upon berries as well as insects.

In Massachusetts the Wood Pewee is a very abundant species, and may usually be found in any open woods, or in an orchard of large spreading trees. In the latter situation it frequently breeds. It usually selects a lower dead limb of a tree, from ten to thirty feet from the ground, and occasionally, but more seldom, a living moss-grown branch. It always chooses one that is covered with small lichens, and saddles its nest upon its upper surface, so closely assimilated by its own external coating of lichens as not to be distinguishable from a natural protuberance on the limb. This structure is extremely beautiful, rivalling even the artistic nests of the Humming-Bird. It is cup-shaped, and a perfect segment of a sphere in shape. The periphery of the nest is made of fine root fibres, small lichens, and bits of cobwebs and other similar materials. The outer sides are entirely covered with a beautiful coating of mosses and lichens, glued to the materials with the saliva of the builder. The eggs are usually four in number, measure .78 of an inch in length and .55 in breadth. They are obtuse at one end and tapering at the other, have a ground of a rich cream-color, and are marked about the larger end with a wreath of blended purple, lilac, and red-brown in large and confluent spots. They hatch about the middle of June, leave the nest in July, and have but a single brood.

A nest of this species, taken in Lynn by Mr. Welch, and built on the dead branch of a forest tree, has a diameter of three and a height of one and a half inches. The cavity has a depth of one inch, and a diameter, at the rim, of two and a half inches. The base is flattened by its position. Its walls are strongly woven of fine dry stems, intermingled with vegetable down, covered externally with lichens, cemented to the exterior, apparently by the secretions of the bird. The base is thinner, and made of softer materials.

During the winter months this species is present as a migrant in various parts of Mexico, south to Guatemala.

Contopus virens, var. richardsoni, BAIRD.

SHORT-LEGGED PEWEE; WESTERN WOOD PEWEE.

Tyrannula richardsoni, SWAINSON, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 146, plate. Muscicapa richardsoni, AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 299, pl. ccccxxxiv. Tyrannula phœbe, BON. List, 1838, 24. _Muscicapa phœbe_, AUDUBON, Synopsis, 1839, 42.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 219, pl. lxi (not of LATHAM). Tyrannus phœbe, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 319. Tyrannus atriceps, D’ORBIGNY (fide G. R. GRAY). Contopus richardsoni, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 189.—SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 231.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 325. Contopus sordidulus, SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 231. Contopus plebeius, (CABAN.) SCLATER, Cat. 1862, 231. Contopus bogotensis, (BONAP.) SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 459. (Tyrannula b. BONAP. Comp. Rend. p. 196.)

SP. CHAR. General appearance of C. virens. Bill broad. Wings very long and much pointed, considerably exceeding the tail; second quill longest; third a little shorter; first shorter than fourth, and about midway between distance from second to fifth (.60 of an inch). Primaries 1.20 inches longer than secondaries. Tail moderately forked. Above dark olive-brown (the head darker); the entire breast and sides of head, neck, and body of a paler shade of the same, tingeing strongly also the dull whitish throat and chin. Abdomen and under tail-coverts dirty pale-yellowish. Quills and tail dark blackish-brown; the secondaries narrowly, the tertials more broadly edged with whitish. Two quite indistinct bands of brownish-white across the wings. Lower mandible yellow; the tip brown. Length, 6.20; wing, 3.65; tail, 3.10.

HAB. High central dry plains to the Pacific; Rio Grande Valley, southward to Mexico; Labrador (AUDUBON). Localities: Orizaba, Guatemala, Coban (SCL. Catal. 1862, 231); Costa Rica (LAWR. IX, 115); Matamoras, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 474, breeds); San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, one spec.); W. Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 61).

This species has a very close relationship to C. virens, agreeing with it in general shape of wings and in color. The wings are, however, still longer and more pointed; the primaries exceeding the secondaries by nearly 1.25 inches. The proportions of the quills are nearly the same in both; the primaries, too, are similarly a little emarginated or attenuated towards the end. The tail is rather more deeply forked, the feathers broader. The bills are similar; the feet are larger and stouter.

The general colors are almost precisely the same. The outer primary, however, lacks the decidedly white margin. The under parts are much darker anteriorly, the entire breast being nearly a uniform olive-brown, but little paler than the back; the throat, too, in some specimens, being scarcely paler. There is little or none of the pale sulphur-yellow of C. virens on the abdomen, and the under wing-coverts and axillaries are much darker olivaceous. In C. virens the middle line of the breast is always paler than the sides, or at least the connecting space is short.

The lower mandible is generally yellow; in a few specimens, however, it is quite dusky, especially on its terminal half.

The young bird has the darker head and broader light edgings, with the ferruginous tinge on the wing-markings, usually seen in young of the Tyrannulas.

A large series shows considerable variations; autumnal specimens have a more appreciable tinge of yellow on the lower parts, while summer individuals are more grayish.

HABITS. This species was first obtained by Richardson in the Arctic regions, and described by Swainson. It was found in the neighborhood of the Cumberland House, where it frequented moist shady woods by the banks of rivers and lakes. It was supposed likely to travel in summer as far as the shores of the Great Slave Lake.

Since its discovery by Richardson, this Flycatcher has been found to have a widely extended geographical range, as far to the south as Guatemala, and even Panama, and northward as far as the 60th parallel of latitude, and from the great plains to the Pacific.

During the survey of the Mexican Boundary, specimens of this bird were obtained by Mr. J. H. Clark in El Paso, Texas, and in the month of May by Lieutenant Couch in Monterey, Mexico.

Mr. Dresser found that this bird was very common near Matamoras during the summer, and that they were breeding there. He also shot one specimen near San Antonio in May. Its stomach contained small insects. Dr. Coues thinks this Flycatcher an exceedingly abundant summer resident in the Territory of Arizona. It arrives there in spring about the first of May, the latest of the Flycatchers, and is deemed by the Doctor a counterpart of the eastern Contopus virens. It departs from that Territory about the third week in September. It is found in all situations, but most especially in open forests.

This species arrives in California, according to Dr. Cooper, at least a fortnight earlier than the date of its earliest advent in Arizona as given by Dr. Coues, or about the 15th of April, and spends its summers in the most mountainous parts of the State. It is said to perch mainly on the lower dead limbs, watching for the passing insects, uttering occasionally a plaintive pe-ah. It is usually very silent, and seems to prefer the dark, solitary recesses of the forests.

Dr. Hoy informs me that this Flycatcher is occasionally found in the neighborhood of Racine, but that it is rare. It keeps in the deep forest, and never comes near dwellings in the manner of C. virens.

This bird was found breeding at Fort Tejon by Mr. Xantus, at Napa Valley by Mr. A. J. Grayson, and both in the Sacramento Valley and at Parley’s Park, among the Wahsatch Mountains, by Mr. Ridgway.

A nest of this bird in the Smithsonian Museum (10,076) from California, collected by W. Vuille, had been apparently saddled on the limb of a tree, in the manner of C. virens, having a broad flattened base, and a general resemblance to the nests of that species. It differs, however, somewhat in regard to materials, and most especially in having no lichens attached to the exterior. It has a diameter of three inches and a height of one and a half. The cavity is about one inch deep and two wide at the rim. The base and sides of this nest are largely composed of the exuviæ of chrysalides, intermingled with hemp-like fibres of plants, stems, and fine dry grasses. The rim is firmly wrought of strong wiry stems, and a large portion of the inner nest is of the same material. The whole is warmly and thoroughly lined with the soft fine hair of small quadrupeds and with vegetable fibres.

According to Mr. Ridgway, this is the most abundant and generally diffused of all the Tyrannuli of the Great Basin, as well as of California. It inhabits every grove of the lowest valleys, as well as the highest aspen copses on the mountains in the alpine region, and breeds abundantly in all these places. Resembling the eastern C. virens in its general habits, its appearance, and its every motion, it yet differs most widely from it in notes, the common one being a disagreeable weird squeak, very unlike the sad, wailing, but not unpleasant one of the eastern Wood Pewee. Mr. Ridgway relates that having shot a female bird, and taken her nest and eggs, he was surprised, a few days afterwards, to find the male with another mate, and a new nest built in precisely the same spot from which the other had been taken. Upon climbing to the nest, it was found to contain one egg; and the parents exhibited very unusual distress. When visited two or three days after, it was found to be deserted and the egg broken.

The eggs, three in number, measure .69 of an inch in length and .53 in breadth. They have a ground of beautiful cream-color slightly tinged with a roseate tint, surrounded at the larger end with a wreath of purple and reddish-brown spots. A few smaller markings are sparingly distributed, but nearly all are about the larger end.

GENUS EMPIDONAX, CABANIS.

Empidonax, CABANIS, Journal für Ornithologie, III, Nov. 1855, 480. (Type, Tyrannula pusilla.) Tyrannula of most authors.

[Line drawing: Empidonax acadicus. 1225]

GEN. CHAR. Tarsus lengthened, considerably longer than the bill, and exceeding the middle toe, which is decidedly longer than the hind toe. Bill variable. Tail very slightly forked, even, or rounded; a little shorter only than the wings, which are considerably rounded; the first primary much shorter than the fourth. Head moderately crested. Color olivaceous above, yellowish beneath; throat generally gray.

The lengthened tarsi, the short toes, the short and rounded wings, and the plain dull olivaceous of the plumage, readily distinguish the species of this genus from any other North American Flycatchers. The upper plates of the tarsi in a good many species do not encircle the outside, but meet there a row on the posterior face.

There are few species of North American birds more difficult to distinguish than the small Flycatchers, the characters, though constant, being very slight and almost inappreciable, except to a very acute observer.

The following synopsis may aid in distinguishing the species:—

Species and Varieties.

A. Inner webs of secondaries edged with pinkish-buff.

a. Olive-brown above, whitish beneath; tibiæ ochraceous.

E. brunneus.[89] Third quill longest, first equal to seventh; tail slightly rounded. Russet-olive above, the crown, wings, and tail with a reddish-brown tinge; a yellowish-gray shade across the breast, and a faint sulphur-yellow tinge to posterior lower parts. Wing-bands broad, sharply defined, deep ochraceous; lining of wing and tibiæ slightly tinged with the same. Wing, 2.35; tail, 2.30; bill, .57 and .27; tarsus, .56; middle toe, .33. Hab. Parana.

E. axillaris.[90] Third quill longest, first equal to seventh; tail? Dark grayish-brown above, nearly uniform, breast ochraceous-olive; a just appreciable tinge of sulphur-yellow on abdomen. Wing-bands narrow, badly defined, in color nearly like the back; lining of the wing and tibiæ very deep ochraceous. Wing, 2.40; tail, 2.50; bill, .60 and .30; tarsus, .60; middle toe, .43. Hab. Orizaba.

b. Olive-green above, yellow beneath; tibiæ greenish.

E. flavescens.[91] Third, or third and fourth quills longest; first equal to eighth. Tail decidedly emarginated. Intense greenish-olive above, the crown with a decided russet tinge; beneath bright lemon-yellow, with a shade of fulvous-brown across the breast. Wing, 2.35 to 2.70; tail, 2.20 to 2.40; bill, .59 and .30; tarsus, .66; middle toe, .35. Hab. Costa Rica.

E. bairdi.[92] Fourth quill longest, first shorter than eighth. Tail slightly emarginated. Dull greenish-olive above, nearly uniform; beneath clear sulphur-yellow, with a greenish-olive shade across the breast. Wing, 2.60; tail, 2.50; bill, .62 and .29; tarsus, .65; middle toe, .35. Hab. Eastern Mexico (MIRADOR).

B. Inner webs of secondaries edged with yellowish or grayish white.

a. Olive-green above, yellowish beneath.

§. Young not mottled above.

E. flaviventris. Bill broad, twice as wide as deep, and the culmen less than twice the breadth. Outer web of lateral tail-feather dusky, like the inner. Wing-bands narrow, whitish. Tail square.

Clear olive-green above, sulphur-yellow beneath; wing-bands sulphur-yellowish; lining of wing clear sulphury-yellow. Wing, 2.60; tail, 2.35, or less; bill, .57 and .27; tarsus, .66; middle toe, .37. Hab. Eastern Province North America, south through Eastern Mexico to Guatemala var. flaviventris.

Dull olive-gray above, pale, somewhat ochraceous, yellow beneath; wing-bands grayish-white; lining of wing strongly tinged with fulvous. Wing, 2.75; tail, 2.60 to 2.75. Hab. Western Province of North America, south, through Western Mexico, to Colima var. difficilis.

E. fulvipectus.[93] Bill narrow, the width but little more than the depth, and the culmen considerably more than twice the breadth at base. Outer web of lateral tail-feather distinctly whitish, very different from the dusky of the inner web. Tail deeply emarginated. Colors of flaviventris var. difficilis, but wing-bands broad and buffy olive, and a deep shade of fulvous-olive across the breast. Wing, 3.00; tail, 2.90; bill, .61 and .22; tarsus, .60; middle toe, .37. Hab. City of Mexico.

b. Grayish or greenish olive above, whitish beneath.

¶. Tail deeply emarginated.

E. obscurus. Exact form and proportions of fulvipectus, but tarsus much longer proportionally. Ashy above, with a slight olive tinge; white beneath with no yellow tinge, and without distinct ashy shade across breast; sides of breast like the back. Orbital ring, wing-markings, and outer web of lateral tail-feather pale clear ashy. Wing, 3.00; tail, 2.80; bill, .64 and .24; tarsus, .77; middle toe, .42.

E. hammondi. Very similar, but bill much smaller and less elongated. Color of upper parts the same as in obscurus; but anterior lower parts nearly uniform ashy, the throat only indistinctly paler, and the posterior portions distinctly uniform pale sulphur-yellow. Outer web of lateral tail-feather less distinctly whitish. Wing, 2.85; tail, 2.55; bill, .50 and .20; tarsus, .64; middle toe, .34.

E. minimus. Very similar to hammondi, but bill much larger, broader, and the lateral outlines less straight. Outer web of lateral tail-feather not appreciably paler than the inner; whole throat distinctly whitish; wing-bands only about half as wide as in hammondi.

Wing, 2.70; tail, 2.60; bill, .57 and .27; tarsus, .66; middle toe, .35. Hab. Eastern Province of North America, and Eastern Mexico var. minimus.

¶. Tail doubly rounded.

Wing, 2.35; tail, 2.20; bill, .54 and .25; tarsus, .62; middle toe, .33. Colors of minimus, but wing-markings whiter. Hab. Panama (var. ?) pectoralis.[94]

E. griseipectus.[95] Colors of hammondi, but wing-bands whiter and narrower, very sharply defined; sides tinged with clear greenish; jugulum and sides of throat clear ashy. Wing, 2.40; tail, 2.40; bill, .56 and .27; tarsus, .60; middle toe, .35. Hab. Guayaquil, Ecuador.

¶. _Tail square, or slightly rounded; feathers acute at tips._

E. pusillus. Brownish-olive or olive-gray above, wing-bands olive or gray; beneath whitish, with a grayish shade across the breast, and a sulphur-yellow tinge posteriorly.

Olive-grayish above, wing-bands much lighter, or whitish-gray. Wing, 2.90; tail, 2.70; bill, .69 and .26; tarsus, .67; middle toe, .40. Hab. Western Province of North America, and Middle and Western Mexico var. pusillus.

Brownish-olive above, wing-bands but little lighter. Wing, 2.90; tail, 2.50; bill, .64 and .27; tarsus, .66; middle toe, .38. Hab. Eastern Province of North America, and Eastern Mexico var. trailli.

§. Young with upper plumage transversely mottled. Wing-bands with a pale buff tinge; upper mandible brown.

E. acadicus. Grayish-green above, greenish-white beneath; throat purer white. Wing, 3.10; tail, 2.80; bill, .67 and .30; tarsus, .60; middle toe, .34. Hab. Eastern Province of United States, and Eastern Mexico var. acadicus.

Wing, 2.65; tail, 2.50; bill, .66 and .30; tarsus, .62; middle toe, .33. Wing-bands whiter. Hab. Panama var. griseigularis.[96]

In Empidonax, as well as Contopus, autumnal birds have the plumage softer and the colors brighter than in spring; the brilliancy of the yellow shades is especially enhanced. The young of the year resemble the parents, but there is a greater tendency to light bands on the wings, which with the other markings of this region show an ochraceous tinge. The lower mandible is also usually tinged with dusky. In the young of E. acadica, alone, there are light transverse bars over upper surface, as in the young of some species of Contopus (C. bahamensis and C. punensis).

[89] Empidonax brunneus, RIDGWAY. A very distinct species, not needing comparison with any other.

[90] Empidonax axillaris, RIDGWAY.

[91] Empidonax flavescens, LAWR. May be the southern form of bairdi, but differ in some apparently essential features.

[92] Empidonax bairdi, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 301; Ibis, 1859, 442; Catal. Am. B. 1862, 230.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1860, 36. (Hab. Cordova, Coban, Mazatlan, Mirador, etc.)

[93] Empidonax fulvipectus, LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. Feb. 1871, 11. (Type examined.) A very distinct species, most nearly related to obscurus, from which it differs totally in color and in much shorter tarsus.

[94] Empidonax minimus, var. pectoralis. Empidonax pectoralis, LAWR. It seems but reasonable to consider this bird as the southern race of minimus, as the differences—i. e. smaller size and whiter wing-bands—are just what we find in several other species of the same region, compared with allied and probably co-specific northern types,—as griseigularis and acadicus, southern specimens of trailli var. pusillus in which the wing-bands are much whiter than in northern specimens of the same bird.

[95] Empidonax griseipectus, LAWR. May possibly be another seasonal plumage of the same species as pectoralis, but differs in some seemingly important respects.

[96] Empidonax acadicus, var. griseigularis. Empidonax griseigularis, LAWR. Differing from acadicus only in smaller size and whiter wing-bands.

The remaining described American species of Empidonax, which we have not seen, are the following:—

Empidonax magnirostris, GOULD, Voy. Beagle, pl. 8.—GRAY, Hand List.

Empidonax albigularis, SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, p. 122 (Orizaba).—SCLATER, Catal. Am. B. 1862, 229. This may possibly be the species described above as E. axillaris.

Empidonax pusillus, CABANIS.

LITTLE FLYCATCHER.

? Platyrhynchus pusillus, SWAINSON, Phil. Mag. I, May, 1827, 366. Tyrannula pusilla, SW. F. B. Am. II, 1831, 144, pl.—RICH. App. Back’s Voyage, 1834-36, 144.—GAMBEL, Pr. A. N. Sc. III, 1847, 156. Muscicapa pusilla, AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 288; pl. ccccxxxiv.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 236, pl. lxvi. _Tyrannus pusilla_, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840. _Empidonax pusillus_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 194. COOPER & SUCKLEY, 176.—SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 229. Empidonax trailli, COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 327 (Colorado River).

SP. CHAR. Second, third, and fourth quills longest; first shorter than the sixth. Bill rather broad; yellow beneath. Tail even. Tarsi rather long. Above dirty olive-brown, paler and more tinged with brown towards the tail. Throat and breast white, tinged with grayish-olive on the sides, shading across the breast; belly and under tail-coverts very pale sulphur-yellow. Wings with two dirty narrow brownish-white bands slightly tinged with olive; the secondaries and tertials narrowly and inconspicuously margined with the same. First primary faintly edged with whitish; the outer web of first tail-feather paler than the inner, but not white. Under wing-coverts reddish ochraceous-yellow. A whitish ring round the eye. Length, 5.50; wing. 2.80; tail, 2.75. Young. Wing-bands ochraceous instead of grayish.

HAB. High Central Plains to the Pacific. Fur countries. Southward into Mexico. Fort Whipple, Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 61); Vera Cruz, temp. reg. resident (SUM. Mem. Bost. Soc. I, 557).

This race represents the var. trailli in the region west of the Rocky Mountains. The present bird is paler colored than trailli, the olivaceous above much more grayish anteriorly, and more brownish posteriorly, the olive being thus less greenish and less uniform in tint; the brownish shade across the breast is lighter and more ashy, and the yellow tinge posteriorly beneath more faint; the wing-bands lighter and more grayish. In color, pusillus thus approximates somewhat to E. minimus, which, however, is a very distinct species, and more closely related to E. hammondi; minimus may be distinguished by much smaller size (the bill especially), the wing-bands grayish-white instead of olive-gray, and the tail emarginated instead of appreciably rounded; minimus lays a white egg like E. obscurus, while pusillus and trailli lay distinctly spotted ones, and build a very different nest.

HABITS. Professor Baird, in his Birds of North America, assigns to this species an area of distribution extending from the Great Plains to the Pacific, southward into Mexico, and north to the fur country. Dr. Hoy cites it as of Wisconsin in his List of the birds of that State, but without positive data for this claim; it has, however, since been actually taken, a summer resident breeding in Jefferson County, in that State. This is its most eastern known occurrence. In the Smithsonian Museum are skins from Fort Steilacoom, Fort Tejon, and Mexico. This species is probably identical with the Little Tyrant Flycatcher, described by Swainson in the Fauna Boreali as both from Mexico and from the Arctic regions. Dr. Richardson was not able to supply anything in regard to its habits. They were first seen by him at the Carlton House on the 19th of May. For a few days they were found flitting about among low bushes on the banks of the river, after which they retired to moist shady woods lying farther north.

Mr. Ridgway mentions the E. pusillus as the most common of the Empidonaces in the Great Basin, as well as in California and the Rocky Mountains. It is chiefly, if not entirely, confined to the willows along streams, but it is as common in the river valleys as in the mountain “parks.” In all respects it is a counterpart of the E. trailli; its notes, as well as its manners, being the same. In Parley’s Park, in the Wahsatch Mountains, at an elevation of over 7,000 feet, they were breeding abundantly; about nightfall they became particularly active, chasing each other, with a merry twitter, through the willow thickets, or, as they perched upon a dry twig, uttered frequently, with swelling throats and raised crest, their odd but agreeable enunciation of pretty dear, as their notes were translated by the people of the locality.

In the Department of Vera Cruz, Mexico, Mr. Sumichrast gives this species as a summer resident within the temperate region. He found it quite common around Orizaba in the months of June and July.

It was also met with on the Mexican Boundary Survey in summer, having been taken in June at Los Nogales by Dr. Kennerly, and at Rio Nazas, in Durango, by Lieutenant Couch, the same month.

Dr. Coues mentions it as moderately plentiful as a summer resident in Arizona. None of this genus were very common at Fort Whipple, but this one was by far the most characteristic species. It arrives there about the middle of April, and remains through September.

Dr. Suckley found this species quite abundant in the vicinity of Fort Steilacoom, where it arrives early in May. It seems to prefer the vicinity of bushes and low trees at the edges of dense forests. This species, he adds, is rather less pugnacious than others of the group, and in habits generally more resembles the Vireo family. Its notes are said to be short but sweet, and just after sundown on warm summer evenings particularly low, plaintive, and soothing.

Dr. Cooper speaks of it as found by him frequenting the dark and gloomy spruce forests, which it seems to prefer to more open places. He found it most numerous near the coast, but also saw a few at Puget Sound, where it arrived about the 25th of April. He speaks of its song as lively but monotonous. He found it very difficult to get a sight of this bird among the upper branches of the tall spruces, its color making it almost invisible in the shade. One of these birds was observed to keep constantly on the border of a small pond and to drive away a Kingbird from the place. He adds that it has a peculiar short and lisping song of three notes, very different from those of the other species. In the fall the young birds uttered a very different call-note.

Mr. Ridgway found this species breeding, June 23, at Parley’s Park, Utah. One nest was built on the horizontal branch of a willow, over a stream, about four feet from the ground. It was partly pensile. It was three inches deep and four in diameter; the cavity was two inches wide and one and a half deep. Externally the nest was somewhat loosely constructed of flaxen fibres of plants, soft strips of inner bark and straw, and lined more firmly with fine roots of plants. This structure was firmly bound around the smaller branches of the limb. The inner nest was much more compactly interwoven than the periphery. The eggs, four in number, were of a chalky whiteness, more pinkish when unblown, finely sprinkled at the larger end with reddish-brown dots. Length, .77 of an inch; breadth, .51.

Another nest from the same locality was built in the upright fork of a wild rose, in the undergrowth of a willow thicket, and about four feet from the ground. It is a much more compact and homogeneous nest. Its external portion was almost wholly composed of the interweaving of the fine inner bark of deciduous shrubs, blended with a few stems of grasses, feathers, etc., and is lined with a few fine grass stems and fibrous roots. The eggs, four in number, have a pinkish-white ground, and are spotted at the larger end with reddish-brown and chestnut spots, in scattered groups.

In the summer of 1870 a son of Mr. Thure Kumlien, of Jefferson Co., Wisconsin, found the nest and eggs of this species. Both parents were obtained, and were fully identified by Professor Baird. The nest was placed in a thick mass of coarse marsh grasses, near the ground, and firmly interwoven with the tops of the surrounding herbage. The grass and reeds, among which it was made, grew in the midst of water, and it was discovered by mere accident in a hunt for rail’s eggs. It was found, June 28, on the edge of Lake Koskonong. It is a large nest for the bird; its base and sides are made of masses of soft lichens and mosses, and within this a neat and firm nest is woven of bits of wool and fine wiry stems of grasses, and lined with the same. The eggs measure .70 by .54 of an inch, are white with a pinkish tinge, and are marked with reddish-brown and fainter lilac blotches at the larger end.

Empidonax pusillus, var. trailli, BAIRD.

TRAILL’S FLYCATCHER.

Muscicapa trailli, AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 236; V, 1839, 426, pl. xlv.—IB. Syn. 1839, 43.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 234, pl. lxv. Tyrannula trailli, RICH. List, 1837.—BONAP. List, 1838. Tyrannus trailli, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 323. Empidonax trailli, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 193.—SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 231.—SAMUELS, 140.

SP. CHAR. Third quill longest; second scarcely shorter than fourth; first shorter than fifth, about .35 shorter than the longest. Primaries about .75 of an inch longer than secondaries. Tail even. Upper parts dark olive-green; lighter under the wings, and duller and more tinged with ash on nape and sides of the neck. Centre of the crown-feathers brown. A pale yellowish-white ring (in some specimens altogether white) round the eye. Loral feathers mixed with white. Chin and throat white; the breast and sides of throat light ash tinged with olive, its intensity varying in individuals, the former sometimes faintly tinged with olive. Sides of the breast much like the back. Middle of the belly nearly white; sides of the belly, abdomen, and the lower tail-coverts, sulphur-yellow. The quills and tail-feathers dark brown, as dark (if not more so) as these parts in C. virens. Two olivaceous yellow-white bands on the wing, formed by the tips of the first and second coverts, succeeded by a brown one; the edge of the first primary and of secondaries and tertials a little lighter shade of the same. The outer edge of the tail-feathers like the back; that of the lateral one rather lighter. Bill above dark brown; dull brownish beneath. Length, nearly 6.00; wing, 2.90; tail, 2.60. Young with the wing-bands ochraceous instead of grayish-olive.

HAB. Eastern United States and south to Mexico. Localities: ? Isthmus of Panama (LAWR. VIII, 63); ? San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 474, breeds); ? Costa Rica (LAWR. IX, 114); Yucatan (LAWR. IX, 201). All these localities, except perhaps the last, are to be questioned, as being more properly in the habitat of var. pusillus.

This species is most closely related to E. minimus, but differs in larger size and the proportions of quills. The middle of the back is the same color in both, but instead of becoming lighter and tinged with ash on the rump and upper tail-coverts, these parts very rarely differ in color from the back. The markings on the wings, instead of being dirty white, are decidedly olivaceous-grayish. The yellow of the lower parts is deeper. The tail-feathers are rather broad, acuminate, and pointed; in minimus they are narrow and more rounded, while the tail itself is emarginated, instead of square, as in the present bird. The bill is larger and fuller. The legs are decidedly shorter in proportion.

HABITS. Traill’s Flycatcher was first described by Mr. Audubon as a western bird, procured from Arkansas. In his subsequent reference to this species he also speaks of it as identical with several birds obtained by Townsend near the Columbia River, but which our present knowledge as to the distribution of this species compels us to presume to have been specimens of the Empidonax pusillus, a closely allied species or race. That Traill’s Flycatcher does occur in Arkansas, on the other hand, is rendered probable by its abundance in other parts of the country, making this region directly within its range of migration. Dr. Woodhouse found it very common both in Texas and in the Indian Territory. Mr. Dresser found it common during the summer season near San Antonio, and to the eastward, breeding there, and building a small hanging nest. He also had its eggs sent to him from Systerdale. The stomach of the specimen he procured contained minute insects. It is mentioned by Dr. E. Coues as found in South Carolina, but whether as a migrant or as a resident is not stated. Dr. William P. Turnbull refers to it as rare near Philadelphia, and as only a spring and autumnal migrant. Mr. McIlwraith cites it as a rare summer visitant near Hamilton, Canada West. It is mentioned by Mr. Boardman as found near Calais, but has not been recorded as occurring in Nova Scotia, as far as I am aware. In Western Maine, Professor Verrill found it a regular but not a common summer visitant, arriving there the third week in May. And Mr. Brewster found it breeding in considerable abundance near Lake Umbagog in the summer of 1872.

In Massachusetts it has been found to occur very irregularly, and so far chiefly as a migrant, at least I am not aware that it has been known, except in a single instance, to breed within the limits of that State. It passes through the State about the middle of May, is rare some seasons, much more abundant for a few days in others. Near Springfield Mr. Allen regarded it as a rather rare summer visitant, arriving from the 10th to the 15th of May, and also mentioned it as probably breeding. A number have been taken in Lynn by Mr. Welch, but none have been observed to remain more than a day or two. Mr. Maynard once met with it on the 1st of June, 1869, in a swampy thicket. It was very shy, and he heard no note.

This species was observed by Mr. Paine, at Randolph, Vt., where it was found to be a not uncommon, though very retiring and shy species. It was found frequenting shady thickets, on the borders of the mountain streams, and several of its nests were procured. The bird was thoroughly identified, specimens of the parents having been sent to Professor Baird for verification. Mr. Paine was not able to obtain much insight into the manners and habits of this species, on account of its shyness. The nests were always placed in low alder-bushes, near running streams, and not more than three or four feet from the ground.

Mr. Paine has since informed me that Traill’s Flycatcher reaches Central Vermont from the 20th to the 25th of May, and is one of the last birds to arrive, coming in company with Contopus virens and C. borealis. They all leave before the close of September. Mr. Paine has met with a great many nests of this species, but has only found one containing more than three eggs. It has a very simple song, consisting of but two notes. It has also a sort of twitter as it plays with its mate. They are usually found in thickets, for the most part near water, but not always, and are never seen in tall woods. They are occasionally seen chasing one another in the open fields.

Mr. William Brewster informs me that he found Traill’s Flycatcher moderately common and breeding at the foot of Mount Washington, in the Glen, in August, 1869, and in the township of Newry, Me., in June, 1871. Their favorite haunts were the dense alder thickets along the runs and small streams, over these dark retreats, perched on some tall dead branch, full in the rays of the noonday sun. The male sang vigorously, occasionally darting out after some insect, and returning to the same perch. His song consisted of a single dissyllabic refrain, ke´wing, uttered in a harsh peevish tone at an interval of about thirty seconds, varied occasionally to ke´wink, or ki-winch. At each utterance his head is thrown upwards with a sudden jerk. They were retiring, but not shy, were easily approached, and were apparently not so restless as most Flycatchers.

Near Washington, Dr. Coues found Traill’s Flycatcher a rare spring and fall visitant, a few possibly remaining to breed. They came about the last of April, and passed south the last of September. Professor Baird frequently met with them about Carlisle, Pa.

In Southern Illinois, Mr. Ridgway has found this species a rather common summer resident, chiefly met with in the open woods. It was found nesting in Northwestern Massachusetts by Mr. A. Hopkins, in Illinois by Mr. Tolman, in New Brunswick by Mr. Barnstow, and at Fort Resolution by Messrs. Kennicott, Ross, and Lockhart.

I have myself found this species on the banks of the Androscoggin and Peabody Rivers in Gorham, and met with several of their nests. They were all in similar situations, and it was quite impossible to obtain a glimpse of the bird after she had left her nest. The nests were all made like those of the Indigo-Bird, externally of dry grasses and fine strips of bark, and lined with finer stems of grasses. The eggs were five in number, and incubation commenced about the first of June. I have discovered their nests at the same time among the foot-hills at the base of Mount Washington, its wooded sides being, at the time, covered with snow to the depth of several feet.

Among the memoranda of Mr. Kennicott I find one dated Fort Resolution, July 9, mentioning the procuring of the parent nest and egg of this species. The nest was three feet from the ground, in a small spruce among thick low bushes. The female was shot on the nest, which contained two young and two eggs. Eggs of this species from Gorham, N. H., and Coventry and Randolph, Vt., do not essentially vary in size or shape. They measure .63 of an inch in length, by .56 in breadth. Their ground-color is white, with a distinctly roseate tinge. They are oval in shape, a little less obtuse at one end, and marked almost entirely about the larger end with large and well-defined spots and blotches of purplish-brown.

Empidonax minimus, BAIRD.

LEAST FLYCATCHER.

Tyrannula minima, WM. M. and S. F. BAIRD, Pr. A. N. Sc. I, July, 1843, 284.—IB. Sillim. Am. Jour. Sc. July, 1844.—AUD. Birds Am. VII, 1844, 343, pl. ccccxci. Empidonax minimus, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 195.—SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 229.—SAMUELS, 141.

SP. CHAR. Second quill longest; third and fourth but little shorter; fifth a little less; first intermediate between fifth and sixth. Tail even. Above olive-brown, darker on the head, becoming paler on the rump and upper tail-coverts. The middle of the back most strongly olivaceous. The nape (in some individuals) and sides of the head tinged with ash. A ring round the eye and some of the loral feathers white; the chin and throat white. The sides of the throat and across the breast dull ash, the color on the latter sometimes nearly obsolete; sides of the breast similar to the back, but of a lighter tint; middle of the belly very pale yellowish-white, turning to pale sulphur-yellow on the sides of the belly, abdomen, and lower tail-coverts. Wings brown; two narrow white bands on the wing, formed by the tips of the first and second coverts, succeeded by one of brown. The edge of the first primary, and of the secondaries and tertials, white. Tail rather lighter brown, edged externally like the back. Feathers narrow, not acuminate, with the ends rather blunt. In autumn the white parts are strongly tinged with yellow. Length, about 5.00; wing, 2.65; tail, 2.50. Young with ochraceous, instead of grayish-white wing-bands.

HAB. Eastern United States to Missouri Plains; Mirador; Orizaba; Belize. Localities: Oaxaca (SCL. 1859, 384); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 122); Orizaba (SCL. Ibis, I, 441, and Mus. S. I.); Coban, Escuintla, Dueñas (SCL. Catal. 1862, 229); San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 474, common, summer).

HABITS. The distinctness of this species from the acadica, with which it had been previously confused, was first pointed out by the Messrs. Baird in 1843, but it was some time before the complete differences between the two species and their distinctive habits and distribution were fully appreciated and known. This species, one of the commonest birds in the State of Massachusetts, where the E. acadica is nearly or quite unknown, was supposed by Mr. Nuttall to be the latter species, and under that name is treated and its history given. Wilson contributed to cause this error. For although his account of the acadica is in part correct, it is not wholly free from error, and probably the nest and eggs described as belonging to the latter were those of the minima. The discovery, by Professor Baird, of the nest and eggs of the acadica, and their marked difference in all respects from those of the minima, which had hitherto been attributed to it, at once pointed out the errors that had prevailed, and permitted the real facts to be appreciated.

This bird is an abundant species throughout Eastern North America, occurring as a migrant in all the States between the Atlantic and the Great Plains, and breeding from the 40th parallel northward over an extent not fully defined, but probably to within the Arctic Circle. It occurs in great numbers from Maine to Nebraska, and, unlike all the other species of this genus, is not shy or retiring, but frequents the open grounds, visits gardens, is found in the vicinity of dwellings, and breeds even in the vines that half conceal their windows and doors.

This Flycatcher reaches Washington, according to Dr. Coues, the last of April, and remains about two weeks. It returns in autumn the third week in August, and remains till the last of September. It is only a spring and autumnal visitant, none breeding, and is rather common. It frequents the margins of small streams and brooks.

I am not aware that the nest of this species has ever been procured farther south than New York City, yet it is given by Mr. Dresser as having been found common by him, through the summer, near San Antonio. It is not, however, mentioned by Dr. Woodhouse, nor by the Mexican Survey, nor was it met with by Sumichrast in Vera Cruz. It is cited by Dr. Coues as only a migrant in South Carolina. Near Philadelphia Mr. Turnbull gives it as a somewhat rare migrant, passing north in April and returning in September, but adds that a few remain to breed. I did not find it breeding in the vicinity of Newark, nor, among a very extensive collection of nests and eggs made in that neighborhood, were there any eggs of this species. It is mentioned by Mr. Boardman as occurring at Calais, and in the western part of the State Mr. Verrill found it a very common summer visitant, arriving there about the middle of May and breeding there in numbers. It is also an exceedingly frequent summer visitant at Hamilton, Canada West, according to Mr. McIlwraith. It is found during the winter months near Oaxaca, Mexico, according to Mr. Boucard, and has been met with throughout Mexico and south to Guatemala.

In Massachusetts this Flycatcher is one of the most abundant and familiar species, arriving from about the 20th of April to the 1st of May. It is found most frequently in orchards, gardens, and open grounds, and very largely on the edges of woods, remaining until October. They are much addicted to particular localities, and return to the same spot year after year, if undisturbed. A pair that had established their hunting-grounds in an open area north of a dwelling in Roxbury returned to the same spot for several successive years, and would come regularly to the piazza of the house, where bits of cotton were exposed for the benefit of such of the whole feathered tribe as chose to avail themselves of it. Each year they drew nearer and nearer the house, until at last the nest was made in a clump of honeysuckle on the corner of the piazza, from which they would sally forth in quest of insects, entirely unmindful of the near presence of the family. I never observed the quarrelsome disposition that Nuttall speaks of, nor have I ever seen them molest other birds, even when the summer Yellow-Birds and the Chipping Sparrows have nested in the same clump. They are very silent birds, having no song and no other cry or note than a very feeble, guttural utterance, given out either as a single sound or as a succession of twitters. Their nest is a very common receptacle for the eggs of the Cow Blackbird.

This species was found breeding at Fort Resolution, latitude 62°, by Mr. Kennicott, the nest being in an alder-bush, and about five feet from the ground. It was also found nesting in the same locality by Mr. Ross and by Mr. Lockhart. Its nest was found at Lake Manitobah by Mr. McTavish, and at Fort Simpson by Mr. Ross.

This species has been gradually undergoing certain modifications of habits and manners in consequence of its contact with civilization and becoming familiarized to the society of man. In nothing is this made more apparent than in the construction of its nests. Those made on the edge of woodlands or in remote orchards are wrought almost entirely of fine deciduous bark, hempen fibres of vegetables, feathers, dried fragments of insect cocoons, and other miscellaneous substances felted and impacted together; within this is a lining of fine strips of vegetable bark, woody fibres, fine lichens, and soft downy feathers. In some the lining is exclusively of fine pine leaves, in others with the seeds or pappus of compositaceous plants. The nests are always quite small, rarely measuring more than three inches in diameter or two in height. Those made in the vicinity of dwellings indicate their neighborhood by the variety of miscellaneous and convenient materials, such as bits of paper, rags, cotton, wool, and the larger and more conspicuous feathers of the poultry-yard. Where raw cotton was abundantly provided, I have known this material, strengthened with a few straws and woody fibres, with a lining of feathers, constitute the whole substance of the nest.

One nest, constructed in a thick tamarack swamp in Wisconsin, is composed of a dense, impacted mass of a dirty white vegetable wool, intertwined at the base with shreds of bark, vegetable stems, and small black roots. The inner rim and frame of the nest are made of black, shining rootlets, intermingled with slender leaves and stems of dry sedges, and lined with the pappus of a small composite plant and a few feathers.

The eggs of this species are pure white, never, so far as I am aware, spotted, of a rounded-oval shape, nearly equally obtuse at either end, and measuring about .60 of an inch in length by .50 in breadth.

Empidonax acadicus, BAIRD.

SMALL GREEN-CRESTED FLYCATCHER.

? Muscicapa acadica, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 947.—LATHAM, Index Orn. II, 1790, 489.—VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 71 (from LATHAM).—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 256; V, 1839, 429, pl. cxliv.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 221, pl. lxii.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 208.—GIRAUD, Birds L. Island, 1844, 40. Muscicapa querula, WILSON, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 77, pl. xiii, f. 3 (not of VIEILLOT). “Platyrhynchus virescens, VIEILLOT.” Tyrannula acadica, RICHARDSON, ? Bon. List, Tyrannus acadica, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 320. Empidonax acadicus, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 197.—SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 229.—SAMUELS, 143.

SP. CHAR. The second and third quills are longest, and about equal; the fourth a little shorter; the first about equal to the fifth, and about .35 less than the longest. Tail even. The upper parts, with sides of the head and neck, olive-green; the crown very little if any darker. A yellowish-white ring round the eye. The sides of the body under the wings like the back, but fainter olive; a tinge of the same across the breast; the chin, throat, and middle of the belly white; the abdomen, lower tail and wing coverts, and sides of the body not covered by the wings, pale greenish-yellow. Edges of the first primary, secondaries, and tertials margined with dull yellowish-white, most broadly on the latter. Two transverse bands of pale yellowish (sometimes with an ochrey tinge) across the wings, formed by the tips of the secondary and primary coverts, succeeded by a brown one. Tail light brown, margined externally like the back. Upper mandible light brown above; pale yellow beneath. In autumn the lower parts are more yellow. Length, 5.65; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.75. Young (60,892 Mt. Carmel, Ill., August 11, 1870; R. RIDGWAY.) Whole upper surface with indistinct transverse bars of pale ochraceous; wing-markings light ochraceous.

HAB. Eastern United States to the Mississippi; Yucatan. Localities: Cuba (LAWR. VII, 1860, 265; GUNDL. Rept. 1865, 240); San Antonio, Texas, summer (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 475).

This species is very similar to E. trailli, but the upper parts are of a brighter and more uniform olive-green, much like that of Vireo olivaceus. The feathers of the crown lack the darker centre. There is less of the olivaceous-ash across the breast. The bands across the wing are light yellowish, instead of grayish-olive. There is much more yellow at the base of the lesser quills. The wings are longer, both proportionally and absolutely. The primaries exceed the secondaries by nearly an inch, instead of by only about .70; the proportions of the quills are much the same.

HABITS. This species belongs to Eastern North America, but its distribution north and east is not determined with entire certainty. I have never met with or received any evidence of its breeding northeast of Philadelphia. Nuttall’s account of this bird so blends what he had ascertained in regard to the habits of a different species with what he derived from other writers, that his whole sketch must be passed as unreliable. It is shy and retiring in its habits, frequenting only lonely places, and would readily escape notice, so that its presence in New Jersey, New York, and even New England, may not be uncommon, although we do not know it. Mr. Lawrence mentions its occurring in the vicinity of New York City; but I can find no evidence whatever that a single specimen of this bird has ever been procured in any part of New England, except Mr. Allen’s mention of finding it near Springfield. That it is found in the immediate neighborhood of Philadelphia I have positive evidence, having received its nest and eggs, found in West Philadelphia. Mr. Turnbull gives it as of frequent occurrence from the beginning of May to the middle of September. He generally met with it in the most secluded parts of woods. Mr. McIlwraith calls it a rare summer resident near Hamilton, Canada West.

I am informed by Mr. Thomas H. Jackson, an accurate observer, resident in Westchester, Pa., that this Flycatcher arrives in that neighborhood early in May, constructing its nest about the first of June. This is generally placed on a drooping limb of a beech or dogwood tree at the height of from six to ten feet from the ground. It is never saddled on a limb like that of a Wood Pewee, neither is it pensile like those of the Vireos, but is built in the fork of a small limb, and securely fastened thereto by a strip of bark. The nest itself is mostly made of fine strips of bark or weed-stalks, woven together without much care as to neatness or strength, and so very slight is the structure that you may often count the eggs in the nest from below. Occasionally this bird constructs its nest of the blossoms of the hickory-tree, and when thus made is very neat and pretty.

The eggs are generally three in number (Mr. Jackson has never known more in a nest), and they are said to be of a rich cream-color, thinly spotted near the greater end. The Cow-Bird sometimes imposes on this species with its parasitic offspring, but not so often as upon other birds.

Mr. Jackson also informs me that this is quite a common bird in some localities. In one piece of woodland, half a mile east of West Chester, he can every season meet with six or eight of their nests, while in another direction, in a wood apparently similar in every respect, he has never met with any.

Mr. J. A. Allen mentions finding this Flycatcher as a rare summer visitant in Western Massachusetts, where, as he states, it breeds in swamps and low moist thickets, which are its exclusive haunts. He characterizes it as one of the most spirited and tyrannical of this genus. It is said to have a short quick note, sounding like quequeal, which it utters hurriedly and sharply, and to have an erect, hawk-like attitude. He adds that it is very quarrelsome with its own species, a battle ensuing whenever two males meet. They pursue each other fiercely, with snapping bills and sharp, querulous, twittering notes. He found it a very shy bird, and difficult to collect, frequenting exclusively, so far as he was able to observe, thick alder-swamps and swampy thickets, keeping concealed among the thick bushes, or at a great distance.

Wilson’s history of this species is quite brief, and he expressly states that it is a bird but little known. His account of its nest and eggs is inaccurate, and refers probably to that of the minimus, as also the statement that it extends its migrations as far as Newfoundland. He found it inhabiting only the deepest solitary parts of the woods, stationed among the lower branches, uttering at short intervals a sudden, sharp squeak, heard at considerable distance through the woods. As it flies, it utters a low, querulous note, which it changes, on alighting, to its usual sharp cry. He adds that it is a rare and very solitary bird, always haunting the most gloomy, moist, and unfrequented parts of the forest, feeding on flying insects, devouring wild bees and huckleberries in their season.

To this account Audubon furnishes but little additional that is reliable. He evidently confounded with it the minimus, repeats Wilson’s description of its eggs, and is incorrect as to its northern distribution. He speaks of it as extremely pugnacious, chasing from its premises every intruder, and when once mated seldom leaving the vicinity of its nest except in pursuit of food. His description of the nest applies to that of the minimus, but not to that of this species.

Mr. Ridgway writes me that in Southern Illinois it is the most abundant of the Empidonaces, breeding in the same woods with E. trailli. It is so exceedingly similar to that species in manners and general habits that they are hard to distinguish, and it requires a long acquaintance with the two in the woods to learn to distinguish them when seen or heard. A close attention, however, shows that the notes of the two are quite distinct.

Mr. Dresser mentions finding this species not uncommon near San Antonio, Texas, during the summer. Its stomach was found to contain small insects. Dr. Woodhouse also speaks of it as common in Texas, New Mexico, and the Indian Territory, but at what season is not mentioned.

Dr. Hoy writes me that this bird, quite common about Racine some twenty-five years ago, has now almost entirely disappeared.

Near Washington Dr. Coues found this Flycatcher a common summer resident, the most abundant of the kind, and the only one that breeds there in any numbers. They arrive the last of April, and remain until the last of September.

A beautiful nest of this species was found by Mr. George O. Welch near Indianapolis, Indiana. It was fully identified, and the parent shot. This nest has a diameter of four inches, and a height of two. Its base is composed to a large extent of dried grasses, intermingled with masses of withered blossoms of different herbaceous plants. Above this is constructed a somewhat rudely interwoven nest, composed entirely of long, fine, wiry stems of grasses. The cavity is two inches wide and less than one in depth. The eggs, three in number, are exceedingly beautiful, and differ from all the eggs of this genus, having more resemblance to those of Contopi. They have an elongated oval shape, and are quite pointed at one end. They measure .78 by .56 of an inch. Their ground is a rich cream-color, tinged with a reddish-brown shading, and at the larger end the eggs are irregularly marked with scattered and vivid blotches of red and reddish-brown. The nest was found on the 3d of June.

Empidonax flaviventris, BAIRD.

YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER.

Tyrannula flaviventris, WM. M. and S. F. BAIRD, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phila. I, July, 1843, 283.—IB. Am. Journ. Science, April, 1844.—AUD. Birds Am. VII, 1844, 341, pl. ccccxc. _Tyrannula pusilla_ (SWAINSON), REINHARDT, Vidensk. Meddel. for 1853, 1854, 82.—GLOGER, Cab. Jour. 1854, 426. _Empidonax hypoxanthus_, BAIRD (provisional name for eastern specimens). Empidonax difficilis, BAIRD (provisional name for western). Empidonax flaviventris, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1859, 198.—SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 229.—MAYNARD, B. E. Mass. 1870, 126.

SP. CHAR. Second, third, and fourth quills nearly equal; first intermediate between fifth and sixth. Tail nearly even, slightly rounded. Tarsi long. Above bright olive-green (back very similar to that of Vireo noveboracensis); crown rather darker. A broad yellow ring round the eye. The sides of the head, neck, breast and body, and a band across the breast like the back, but lighter; the rest of the lower parts bright greenish sulphur-yellow; no white or ashy anywhere on the body. Quills dark brown; two bands on the wing formed by the tips of the primary and secondary coverts, the outer edge of the first primary and of the secondaries and tertials pale yellow, or greenish-yellow. The tail-feathers brown, with the exterior edges like the back. The bill dark brown above, yellow beneath. The feet black. In the autumn the colors are purer, the yellow is deeper, and the markings on the wings of an ochrey tint. Length, 5.15; wing, 2.83; tail, 2.45.

HAB. Eastern United States, and Eastern Middle America, south to Costa Rica. Localities: Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 122); Xalapa (SCL. Ibis, I, 441); Choctun, Dueñas (SCL. Catal. 1862, 230); Costa Rica (LAWR. IX, 114); Panama (LAWR. VIII, 63); Vera Cruz, winter, resident? (SUM. M. B. S. I, 557); San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 475).

Specimens from the eastern regions of North and Middle America, though varying slightly among themselves, all agree in the characters which distinguish them from the western series.

HABITS. This well-marked species was first obtained in Carlisle, Penn., and described by the Bairds in 1843. It has since remained a comparatively rare and scattered species, and has been only seldom met with. I found it breeding in the vicinity of Halifax, and also among the Grand Menan Islands, and in both cases was so fortunate as to be able to obtain its nest and eggs. It has been found near Calais by Mr. Boardman, and its nest also procured. It has also been found breeding near Trenton, N. J., by Dr. Slack, and in a not distant locality in the same State by Dr. Abbott.

Dr. Coues observed the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher to be a rather rare spring and autumnal visitant at Washington. As specimens were taken there July 28, undoubtedly they occasionally breed there. They appear early in May, and go south the latter part of September.

Two specimens of Flycatcher, identified as of this species, are recorded by Professor Reinhardt as having been taken at Godthaab, Greenland, in 1853.

Sumichrast met with this species in Vera Cruz, but whether as a resident or only as a migrant he could not determine. Mr. Dresser states that it is common in the summer near San Antonio, arriving there in April. Dr. Coues met it in its migrations through South Carolina. Dr. Turnbull speaks of it as rare in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, where it arrives in the middle of April on its way north. It has been found throughout Eastern Mexico and Guatemala, and as far south as Panama.

Mr. Verrill regarded this species as a summer resident in Western Maine, though he never met with its nest, and at no time very common. Specimens were procured between the last of May and the middle of June. It was found, though very rare, by Mr. McIlwraith, at Hamilton, where it was supposed to be a summer resident. Specimens were taken about the middle of May.

Dr. Hoy detected this species in the summer of 1869, in the vicinity of Racine, and although he had no doubt that they had a nest in the vicinity, he was not able to discover it. He was surprised to find that the male of this species has quite a pretty song. This fact has since been confirmed by the observations of Mr. Boardman, who has heard this bird give forth quite a pleasing, though somewhat monotonous trill. This, according to Dr. Hoy, resembles Pēa-wāyk-pēa-wāyoc, several times repeated in a soft and not unpleasant call or song.

In Western Massachusetts Mr. Allen has found this species rather rare. Those met with have all been taken from May 15 to June 5. Dr. Coues, in his List of the birds of New England, expresses his conviction that this species is probably much less rare than collectors have generally supposed. It harbors very closely in shady woods and thickets, and is very rarely to be met with anywhere else. In the distance it is not easily distinguished from other species of this genus, and may have been allowed to go unsought, mistaken for a much more common species. Mr. Allen has generally met with quite a number each year in May, sometimes several in a single excursion. Mr. Maynard took eight specimens in a few hours, May 31, in Eastern Massachusetts, and Mr. Welch obtained an unusual number in a single season. Dr. Coues has also met with them near Washington during their breeding-season.

At Grand Menan I found the nest of this species in a low alder-bush, on the edge of a thicket, but within a few feet of the shore. The nest was about two feet from the ground, placed in the fork of the bush, and bearing a close resemblance to the nest of the Cyanospiza cyanea. It was loosely made of soft strips of the inner bark of deciduous trees, and lined with yellow stems of grasses. It was not large for the bird, but the conspicuous color of the materials at once betrayed the nest as we chanced to land within a few feet of it. The female immediately slid from it, and was not seen again, but her mate was undisturbed by our presence. Afterwards other nests were obtained at Halifax, on the edge of swampy woods, made of stubble, and placed in low bushes. All the eggs I obtained were white, of a slightly more chalky hue than those of the minimus, and more oblong. Those procured by Mr. Boardman were sprinkled with minute dots of reddish-brown. Their measurement is .68 by .52 of an inch.

Empidonax flaviventris, var. difficilis, BAIRD.

WESTERN YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER.

Empidonax difficilis, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 198 (under _E. flaviventris_), pl. lxxvi, f. 2.—SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 230. Empidonax flaviventris, COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 328.

SP. CHAR. Similar to flaviventris, but tail much longer, and colors lighter and duller. The olive above less green, and the sulphur-yellow beneath less pure, having an ochraceous cast, this especially marked on the edge of the wing; wing-bands grayish rather than yellowish white. Measurements, ♂ (58,550, Parley’s Park, Wahsatch Mountains, Utah, August 5, 1869; C. KING, R. RIDGWAY): Wing, 2.90; tail, 2.80; wing-formula, 3, 4, 2, 5, 6, 1. Young. Wing-bands ochraceous, instead of grayish-white, with a sulphur-yellow tinge.

HAB. Western Province of United States, and Western Mexico. (Mazatlan, Colima, etc.) Fort Whipple, Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 62).

HABITS. This Flycatcher is a western form, closely allied to our eastern E. flaviventris. It was met with by Dr. Coues in Arizona, where it was rather rare, and appeared to be a summer resident. It arrives in that Territory about the middle of April, and remains there until the latter part of September. Dr. Coues found it difficult to distinguish this form from our eastern flaviventris.

Dr. Cooper obtained at Monterey, Cal., specimens of the western types of this bird, having darker markings on the wing, which, however, he regards as only indicative of a young plumage, and not of specific distinctness. He found these birds chiefly frequenting woods of Coniferæ, and very silent, which, so far as the observation has any value, indicates a marked difference between the eastern and the western birds.

The eggs of this species are also different from any of the eastern E. flaviventris that I have ever seen, and are more like the eggs of E. trailli than of the other species of Empidonax. They measure .73 of an inch in length, by .58 in breadth, have a creamy-white ground, marked at the larger end with reddish-brown and purplish markings. They are of an oblong-oval shape. Mr. Ridgway met with this species only once in his western explorations, when he obtained a pair in a thick pine woods on the Wahsatch Mountains, in June. They were exceedingly retiring, and frequented dark woods, whose solitudes were shared besides only by the Turdus auduboni and Myiadestes townsendi. Their note was a pit, much more like that of some Warblers than like the notes of the other Empidonaces.

This species, called by Mr. Grayson “The Lonely Flycatcher,” was found by him quite common in the Three Marias, islands off the Pacific coast of Mexico, as well as on the main coast, and also in California. The accustomed places of resort of this solitary little bird were, he states, the most retired and secluded dells of the forest. He there met with it beneath the canopy of the natural and shady grottos formed by the overlapping branches, intermingled with innumerable creeping plants, sitting upon some low twig watching for a passing fly. At other times it might be seen frequenting some secluded and shady little brook, near the surface of which it often darted upon the flies that skimmed over the surface of the water, ever and anon uttering a low and plaintive one-syllabled note.

Empidonax obscurus, BAIRD.

WRIGHT’S FLYCATCHER.

? Tyrannula obscura, SWAINSON, Syn. Mex. Birds, in Philos. Mag. I, 1827, 367. Empidonax obscurus, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 200, pl. xlix, f. 3.—IB. M. B. II, Birds 9, pl. xi, f. 3.—SCL. Catal. 1862, 230.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 329. Empidonax wrighti, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 200 (name proposed in case this should prove not to be the T. obscura of Swainson).

SP. CHAR. Bill very narrow. Tarsi long. Wing rounded. Second, third, and fourth quills longest; first shorter than sixth, sometimes than seventh and eighth. Tail rounded. Above dull brownish-olive, paler on the rump, tinged with gray on the head. Loral region and space round the eye whitish. Throat and forepart of the breast grayish-white, slightly tinged with olive across the latter; the rest of the under parts pale yellowish. Wings and tail brown; the former with two conspicuous bands of brownish-white; the outer primary edged, the secondaries and tertials edged and tipped with the same. The outer web of the external tail-feather white, in strong contrast. Length, 5.75; wing, 2.75; tail, 2.55; tarsus, .70. Young. Wing-bands yellowish-gray, or grayish-buff (not ochraceous); upper parts with a brownish wash; abdomen tinged with dull buff.

HAB. Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of United States, and table-lands of Mexico. Localities: La Parada, Mexico (SCL. Catal. 1862, 230); Vera Cruz, winter, perhaps resident (SUM. M. B. S. I, 557); Fort Whipple, Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 63).

The most decided character of this species is seen in the combination of the narrow bill and the white outer margin of the external tail-feather, together with the long tarsi. The bill measured across opposite the middle of the nostrils is less than half its length from the forehead, instead of being considerably more, as in nearly all the other North American species, except hammondi. From this, however, the longer tail, edged externally with white; the longer bill and tarsus, the more rounded wings, the paler throat, etc., will distinguish it. Some specimens (spring and summer individuals) are very pale, showing scarcely any yellow beneath; the upper parts more tinged with gray. Sometimes there is a decidedly hoary frontlet.

A young specimen (53,303, ♀, Upper Humboldt Valley, Nev., September 16, 1868; C. King, R. Ridgway) is remarkable for its pale and unusually grayish colors. There is nowhere any tinge of yellow, and scarcely any of brown, the colors being simply clear ash and pure dull white, except the dusky of wings and tail. In these respects it differs from all others in the collection; there can be no doubt, however, that it is the same species as the brownish individuals obtained in the same locality.

HABITS. This Flycatcher appears to have been first described as a Mexican species by Swainson in 1827. Since then it has been obtained by Sumichrast in the Department of Vera Cruz, but whether resident or only migratory he was unable to decide. Specimens were obtained at El Paso, in Texas, by Mr. C. Wright, on the Mexican Boundary Survey. Dr. Coues found this bird a summer resident in Arizona, but rare. It arrives there early in April, and remains until October. Dr. Cooper first observed this species at Fort Mohave about April 1, and a few afterwards until May 25. They kept among low bushes, were generally silent, or with only a single lisping chirp. Occasionally they flew a short distance after insects in the general manner of this genus. We are indebted to Mr. Ridgway for all the knowledge we possess in reference to the habits and nesting of this rare species.

He met with them in all the aspen groves and thickets of the high mountain regions, from the Sierra Nevada to the Wahsatch and Uintah Mountains. The aspen copses at the head of the cañons of the highest and well-watered ranges of the Great Basin were their favorite resort; but they were sometimes seen in the “mahogany” woods on the spurs, and occasionally, even, on the willows in the river valleys. Their common note was a weird sweer, much like the call of Chrysomitris pinus, but very often, especially when the nest was approached, they uttered a soft liquid whit. In the Toyabe Mountains, where these little Flycatchers were breeding abundantly in the aspen copses, Mr. Ridgway found them to be so unsuspicious that several were taken from the nest with his hand; and one which was shot at and slightly wounded returned to her nest and suffered herself to be taken off without showing any alarm.

A nest obtained by Mr. Ridgway near Austin, in Nevada, July 3, 1868, was built in the crotch of a small aspen, about five feet from the ground. This nest is a very neat, homogeneous, compact structure, cup-like in shape, three inches in diameter, and two and a half in height. Its cavity is one and a half inches in depth, and three inches across the rim. It is composed almost entirely of strips of soft and bleached fragments of the inner bark of deciduous trees and shrubs, and hempen fibres of various plants. The inner nest is a lining made of finer materials of the same, with a few fine roots and feathers.

The eggs, three in number, are of a uniform creamy white, unspotted, and not unlike the eggs of Empidonax minimus. They measure .73 of an inch in length, and .60 in breadth.

The nest and eggs of this species were also found by Mr. C. S. McCarthy, in Dodge Valley, July 2, 1859. The nest was in a low flowering bush, and was a few feet from the ground. It was likewise found breeding at Camp Grant, Arizona, by Dr. Palmer.

Empidonax hammondi, BAIRD.

HAMMOND’S FLYCATCHER.

Tyrannula hammondi, DE VESEY (XANTUS), Pr. A. N. Sc. May, 1858. Empidonax hammondi, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 199, pl. lxxvi, f. 1.—SCLATER, Catal. 1862, 230.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 330.

SP. CHAR. Tail moderately forked; the feathers acutely pointed. Third quill longest; second and then fourth a little shorter. First much shorter than fifth, a little longer than sixth. Bill very slender; dark brown. Above dark olive-green, considerably darker on the head. Breast and sides of the body light olive-green, the throat grayish-white; the rest of under parts bright sulphur-yellow. A whitish ring round the eye. Wings and tail dark brown; the former with two olivaceous gray bands across the coverts; the latter with the outer edge a little paler than elsewhere, but not at all white. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.80; tail, 2.50; tarsus, .67.

HAB. Mexico and Western Province of United States (Clark’s Fork; Fort Laramie; Fort Tejon, Orizaba, and numerous intermediate points). North to Lesser Slave Lake, where breeding abundantly (S. JONES, Mus. S. I.). Localities: Vera Cruz, winter, perhaps resident (SUM. M. B. S. I, 557); W. Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 62).

In this species the olive-green on the sides is scarcely distinguishable from that on the back, although becoming more yellow on the middle of the breast. There is a decided ashy shade on the whole head. The only light edging to the quills is seen on the terminal half of the secondaries. The upper mandible and feet are black; the tip of the lower (and in one specimen the whole) dark brown. The fork of the tail measures a quarter of an inch in depth; the longest quill exceeds the first by .40.

This species is at once distinguishable from all the North American Tyrannulas, except obscurus, by the extreme narrowness as well as shortness of the bill. This is only .25 of an inch wide at the posterior angle of the mouth, and only .19 at the nostrils. Its colors above are those of acadicus, while the general effect is much more that of flaviventris, although less brightly olive. The throat is grayish, not of the same yellow with the belly; the ring round the eye white, not yellow; the olive of the breast much more continuous and distinct; the bands on the wings dull grayish instead of clear greenish-yellow. The tail, instead of being nearly even, is quite deeply forked. The bill is scarcely half as wide, and brownish, not yellow, beneath. The tarsus has the same peculiar scutellation.

The differences from T. obscurus are less easily expressed. It is, however, considerably smaller, and more olivaceous above and below, the tarsi very much shorter; the most tangible character is seen in the absence of the white on the outer web of the external tail-feather, which is only a little paler brown than elsewhere. The abdomen is much more distinctly yellowish.

HABITS. This species was first discovered in the vicinity of Fort Tejon, Cal., by Mr. Xantus, in 1858, and described by him in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy. It has since been taken in other parts of California and Mexico. Sumichrast found it in the Department of Vera Cruz; and Dr. Coues has taken it in Arizona, where he regarded it as a rather rare summer resident, arriving late in April and remaining until the third week in October.

Dr. Cooper obtained a single specimen of this species at Fort Mohave, May 20. It closely resembled E. obscurus in its habits at that time, and he mistook it for that species. He afterwards met with others, as supposed, of these birds, on Catalina Island, in June. They kept in low trees, and uttered a few faint lisping notes. The first of this species arrived at Santa Cruz, March 13, and they were numerous during the summer, disappearing in September. April 27, Dr. Cooper found the first nest. It was built on the horizontal branch of a negundo-tree, about eighteen feet from the ground. He found four others afterwards, from four to ten feet high, either on horizontal branches or on forks of small trees. They contained three or four eggs each, or young. The last one with eggs was found as late as June 29, probably a second nest of a pair that had been robbed. These nests were all thick walled, composed externally of dry mosses and downy buds, with a few strips of bark and leaves, and slender woody fibres, and often with a few hairs or feathers lining the inside. Externally the nests were about four inches wide and two and a half high. The cavity was two inches wide and one and a half deep. The eggs were white with brown blotches and specks near the larger end, disposed mostly in a circle. They measured .68 by .52 of an inch.

These birds, he further states, frequented only the darkest groves along the river, and had a very few simple call-notes of a monotonous character. They were so very shy that he could not get near enough to determine the species, which in all probability was not this species, but the E. pusillus.

The E. hammondi was met with by Mr. Ridgway only in the East Humboldt Mountains, where, in September, it was found in the thickest groves of tall aspens. It seemed to be confined to these localities, and was much more secluded than the E. obscurus. Its common note was a soft pit.

A number of nests and eggs sent, with the parent birds, from Lesser Slave Lake, by Mr. Strachan Jones, show that its eggs are unspotted creamy-white, like those of E. minimus and E. obscurus. Indeed, a number of nests and eggs of the former of these two species, also accompanied by the parent birds, could not be distinguished, except by their apparently just appreciably larger size, on the average.

GENUS MITREPHORUS, SCLATER.

Mitrephorus, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 44. (Type, M. phæocercus.)

GEN. CHAR. Similar in general character to M. empidonax, but with fulvous, fulvous-olive and rufous tints, instead of clear olive, gray, white, and sulphur-yellow. Head crested; bristles of gape reaching nearly to tip of bill. Feet very weak.

[Line drawing: 40602 ♀]

The type of this genus (M. phæocercus) is quite different in form from Empidonax, the nearest North American ally, but both M. pallescens and fulvifrons could with little violence be placed in it. There is no positive character to separate the latter from the average of species of Empidonax, except it be the color. The crest is not at all conspicuous, nor is there any appreciable difference of form; while in the form of the bill these species are much nearer Empidonax than Mitrephorus. The legs, however, are weaker, and the rictal bristles longer.

There are two forms of the group, as defined by Sclater: one embracing E. phæocercus, Sclater (Mexico and Guatemala), and E. aurantiiventris, Lawr. (Costa Rica); the other E. fulvifrons, Giraud, and pallescens, Coues. The differences between the last two, which are probably merely races of one species, may be expressed as follows:—

M. fulvifrons. Olivaceous above; beneath ochraceous-fulvous; darkest on the breast, paler on throat and crissum. External edge of outer tail-feathers whitish.

Olive of back fulvous; under parts decided ochrey-fulvous. Wing-bands tinged with ochraceous; wing rather pointed. First quill equal to sixth; third, longest. Wing, 2.65; tail, 2.40; tarsus, .61. Hab. Northern Mexico var. fulvifrons.[97]

Olive of back grayish; beneath obscurely ochrey-fulvous and much paler; wing-bands grayish-white; wing rather rounded. First quill shorter than sixth; fourth longest. Length, 4.75; wing, 2.15; tail, 2.00; tarsus, .55. Hab. Arizona var. pallescens.

[97] Mitrephorus fulvifrons. Muscicapa fulvifrons, GIRAUD, 16 species Texas birds, 1841, pl. ii (Mexico?). Empidonax fulvifrons, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 301. Mitrephorus fulvifrons, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 45. Empidonax rubicundus, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. ii, 1859, 70 (Mexico). Hab. Northern Mexico.

Mitrephorus fulvifrons, var. pallescens, COUES.

BUFF-BREASTED LEAST FLYCATCHER.

Mitrephorus pallescens, COUES, Pr. Philad. Ac. 1866, 63 (Fort Whipple, Arizona).—COOPER, Orn. Calif. I, 334. Mitrephorus fulvifrons, ELLIOT, Illust. B. Am. I, pl. xix.

SP. CHAR. Above fulvous-gray, with an ashy cast on the tail and crown; lighter across the nape. Two grayish-white bands across the wings, and the terminal half of the secondaries and outer web of lateral tail-feather broadly edged with the same. Whole lower parts, including the lores and cheeks, and lining of wing, light ochraceous, very deeply ochraceous across the breast and on the sides, nearly white on the abdomen and crissum. Upper mandible deep black, lower whitish (“bright orange-yellow” in life); feet deep black. Wing-formula: second, third, and fourth quills equal and longest, 5, 6, 1. Tail very slightly emarginated, but lateral feather a little the shortest. Male. Length, 4.75; wing, 2.25; tail, 2.00; culmen, .54 (measured to concealed base); breadth of bill, .24; tarsus, .54; middle toe, .28. Female. Colors paler; deep ochraceous of breast, etc., less distinct.

HAB. Southern border of Middle Province of United States (Fort Whipple, Arizona).

The true M. fulvifrons of Mexico differs simply in deeper colors, the shade above being decidedly fulvous, instead of grayish, and the lower parts much more deeply ochraceous, the abdomen not approaching white; the wing-markings are also tinged with ochraceous.

HABITS. This species, both new to our fauna and previously undescribed, was taken by Dr. Coues at Fort Whipple. It belongs to a newly established genus of Flycatchers, recently established by Mr. Sclater, similar to Empidonax. So far as known, its members are more or less tropical in their residence. It is a rare summer resident at Fort Whipple, arriving there early in May. Nothing is stated in reference to its habits, except that they correspond with those of the Empidonaces.

GENUS PYROCEPHALUS, GOULD.

Pyrocephalus, GOULD, Zoöl. of Beagle, 1838, 44.

[Line drawing: Pyrocephalus rubineus. 38206 ]

GEN. CHAR. Tarsus moderate, very little longer than the middle toe; hind toe not longer than the lateral. Bill slender, very narrow at the base. Tail broad, even, considerably shorter than the wings (about four fifths), which reach beyond the middle of the tail. First quill shorter than the fifth. Head with a conspicuous rounded crest. Sexes dissimilar. Male with the crown and lower parts red (except in E. obscurus); tail, back, and wings dark brown.

The single North American species of this genus is readily distinguished among other Flycatchers by the bright red of the under parts. The female is quite different in color from the male, being peculiar in this respect among North American Flycatchers.

Species and Varieties.

E. obscurus.[98] Entirely uniform sepia-brown beneath, with a wine-purple tinge posteriorly and on the forehead. Hab. Peru.

E. rubineus. Whole crown, and entire lower parts (except lining of wing), brilliant scarlet-red; a stripe on side of the head, and entire upper parts, sepia-brownish. Female. Whitish anteriorly beneath, more or less reddish posteriorly; anterior portion with dusky streaks; crown dusky. Young without any red; feathers above bordered with lighter; streaks beneath numerous. Length, about 5.50.

The brown of a dark sepia cast, edges of wing-feathers not appreciably paler, the red with a slight carmine shade. No whitish on the edge of outer nor on tips of other tail-feathers. Hab. South America var. rubineus.[99]

Similar to last, but outer web of lateral tail-feather distinctly whitish, the rest tipped slightly with whitish. Hab. Northern South America (Bogota and Guayaquil) var. nanus.[100]

The brown of a decided grayish cast, and edges of wing-feathers very distinctly paler; red more scarlet (but equally intense). No whitish tips to tail-feathers, and no white edge to the outer. Hab. Middle America; north into southern border of United States var. mexicanus.

[98] Pyrocephalus obscurus, GOULD, Zoöl. Voy. Beag. iii, 45.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 46; Catal. Am. B. 1862, 228 (Peru).

[99] Pyrocephalus rubineus, (BODD.) CAB. Muscicapa rubinea, BODD. (ex Buff. pl. enl. cclxv, f. 1). Pyrocephalus r. CABANIS et HEIN. Mus. Hein. ii, p. 67.—SCLATER, Catal. Am. B. 1862, 227.

[100] Pyrocephalus rubineus, var. nanus, GOULD, Zoöl. Beag. iii, 45, pl. vii.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 46, 144; 1860, 282, 295; Catal. Am. B. 1862, p. 228. The last is hardly separable by the characters given, as, although they are never seen in southern specimens, they are not constant in the northern ones. Specimens of nanus are as large as any of rubineus, there being in every region a great range of variation in dimensions.

Pyrocephalus rubineus, var. mexicanus, SCLATER.

RED FLYCATCHER.

Pyrocephalus rubineus, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. V, May, 1851, 115. CASSIN, Ill. I, IV, 1853, 127, pl. xvii.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 201.—SALVADORI, Atti. Milan. vii, 1864.—HEERM. X, S, 38. Tyrannula coronata, SWAINSON, WAGLER, Isis, 1831, 529. Pyrocephalus nanus, WOODHOUSE, Sitgreave’s Report, 1853, 75 (not of GOULD). Pyrocephalus mexicanus, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 45, 56, 366; 1864, 176.—IB. Ibis, 1859, 442.—IB. Catal. 227.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1860, 399 (Guatemala).—CABANIS, Mus. Hein. ii, 1859, 68.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 333.

SP. CHAR. Head with a full rounded or globular crest. Tail even. Crown and whole under parts bright carmine-red; rest of upper parts, including the cheeks as far as the bill, and the lining of the wing, dull grayish-brown; the upper tail-coverts darker; the tail almost black; greater and middle wing-coverts and edges of secondaries and tertials dull white towards the edges. Female similar, without the crest; the crown brown, like the back; the under parts whitish anteriorly, streaked with brown; behind white, tinged with red or ochraceous. Length of male about 5.50; wing, 3.25; tail, 2.75. Young resembling the female, but lacking any trace of red, and with each feather of the upper parts bordered with whitish, producing a very variegated appearance.

HAB. Valleys of Rio Grande and Gila southward. Localities: Honduras (MOORE, P. Z. S. 1859, 55); Cordova (SCL. 1856, 296); Vera Cruz, hot to alpine regions (SUM. M. B. S. I, 557); Yucatan (LAWR. IX, 201); Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 64).

Every stage between the youngest plumage described and the adult male may be found in a large series of immature specimens: the shade of the red in both sexes frequently varies, it being sometimes of a slightly rosaceous tint, and again decidedly inclining to orange; its amount in the female varies almost with the individual. The two South American races (var. nanus and var. rubineus; see synopsis) differ in having the brown of upper parts, etc., very decidedly darker; no appreciable light edgings to wing-feathers, and sometimes an appreciably more intense red. One of them (nanus) has a distinct white outer edge to lateral tail-feather, and slight whitish tips to the other; the other has no more than a trace of these markings.

HABITS. This brilliant species is a rare summer visitant to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and probably Southern California. It is found throughout Middle America. It has only within a few years been known as a resident within our territory, but was first observed in Texas by Captain McCown, of the United States Army, in 1850, and its claim to a place in our fauna publicly made by Mr. G. N. Lawrence. Captain McCown, in some notes on the habits of certain Texan birds, published in the Annals of the N. Y. Lyceum, speaks of this Flycatcher as being seldom seen, and of his having noticed not more than a dozen in Western Texas. He always found them near ponds of water, in the vicinity of the Rio Grande, generally on a tree or a stake near the water. He only met with one nest, and this was inaccessible. It was built on an acacia over the water.

Lieutenant Couch, in a letter to Mr. Cassin, states that he first met with this bird at Charco Escondido, in Tamaulipas, on the 10th of March. The males had come in advance of the females, as the latter were not observed until several weeks afterwards. Early in the morning, and again about sunset, one of these birds came to the artificial lake constructed there for the supply of water to the inhabitants. It appeared to be of a very quiet and inoffensive disposition, usually sitting on the upper branches of the trees, occasionally uttering a low chirp. He subsequently met with these birds in Nueva Leon. In their habits they appeared to be in some respects similar to the smaller northern Flycatchers.

Dr. Henry also met with these birds in the vicinity of Fort Webster, in New Mexico; he found them exceedingly rare, and his observations were confirmatory of their partiality for the neighborhood of water. His first specimen was obtained on the Rio Mimbres, near Fort Webster, in the month of March.

Dr. Woodhouse met with an individual of this Flycatcher near the settlement of Quihi, in Texas, in the month of May. It was breeding in a thicket. He did not hear it utter any note.

According to the observations of Mr. Sumichrast, this bird is very abundant throughout the entire Department of Vera Cruz, common everywhere, at all heights, in the hot, the temperate, and the alpine regions. Mr. Dresser obtained a fine male specimen from the San Pedro River, near San Antonio, in August. Another, a young male, was obtained September 25. It was very shy, and made its way through the low bushes like the Hedge Sparrow of Europe. A third was obtained April 5, after much difficulty. It was not so shy as the others, but kept more in the open country, always perching on some elevated place. Its note resembled that of the Milvulus forficatus.

This bird, according to Dr. Coues, is not found as far to the north as Fort Whipple, among the mountains, though it extends up the valley of the Colorado to an equally high latitude. It is also said to be common in the valley of the Gila and in Southern Arizona generally.

Mr. E. C. Taylor (Ibis, VI, p. 86) mentions finding this Flycatcher tolerably abundant both at Ciudad Bolivar and at Barcelona, but he did not meet with a specimen on the island of Trinidad. He notes its great resemblance in habits to the Muscicapæ of Europe.

Dr. Kennerly reports that these birds were often observed by him at various points on the road, from Boca Grande to Los Nogales. It generally selected its perch on the topmost branch of some bush or tree, awaiting the approach of its insect food, and then sallying out to capture it. Sometimes it poised itself in a graceful manner in the air, while its bright plumage glistened in the sun like some brightly colored flower.

Dr. Heermann procured a specimen of this Flycatcher at Fort Yuma, where he was informed that it was quite common in spring. He saw other individuals of this species at Tucson in Sonora. These birds, he states, station themselves upon the topmost branches of trees, and when pursued appear quite wild, flying to a considerable distance before again alighting.

Dr. Cooper saw at Fort Mohave, May 24, a bird which he had no doubt was an individual of this species, but he was not able to procure it. It perched upon the tops of bushes, and would not suffer him to approach within shooting distance. One has since been taken by Mr. W. W. Holden in Colorado Valley, lat. 34°, April 18.

Mr. Joseph Leyland found this species common on the flats near Peten, in Guatemala, as also on the pine ridges of Belize. They have, he states, a singular habit of spinning round and round on the wing, and then dropping suddenly with wings loose and fluttering as though shot,—apparently done for amusement. They lay three or four light-colored eggs in a small nest composed of light grass and lined with cottony materials. Mr. Xantus found the nest and eggs of this species at San José, Mexico, May 16, 1861.

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