246 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



houses, or on those along river banks. The distance from the ground 

 ranges from six to fifty feet. The nest is a very pretty, flat, compact 

 structure, with a thick wall and a thin floor often the branch forms a 

 portion of the bottom of the nest, and it is frequently so thin that the 

 eggs can be seen from beneath. Slender or split grasses, weed-fibres, 

 narrow strips of grapevine bark, and pieces of moss-fibres make up the 

 nest proper. Externally it is covered with pieces of lichens, which 

 are held in position by webs, and the structure thus ornamented is ren- 

 dered indistinguishable from a natural protuberance of the branch 

 itself.* 



The nesting time is in the latter part of May or in June. The 



eggs are usually three, rarely four in number, with a creamy-white 

 ground of varying intensity ; the markings are formed in a wreath 

 around the larger end, or around the center ; these are spots of reddish- 

 brown, burnt umber and lilac-gray. In their short diameter the eggs 

 measure from .50 to .59 ; in their long diameter from .65 to .79 ; the 

 average size is about .74X-55. 



462. Contopus richardsonii (SWAINS.) [321.] 



Western "Wood Pewee. 



Hab. Western North America, from the Great Plains to the Pacific; north to British Columbia and 

 interior of British America; south in winter through Mexico and Central America. 



The Western Wood Pewee is common in various regions of West- 

 ern United States, as in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, 

 Oregon, etc, Col. Goss records it as a rare summer resident in West- 

 ern Kansas; begins laying the first of June. Mr. Bryant informs me 

 that it is tolerably common near Oakland, Cal., where it nests by pre- 

 ference on the horizontal branches of alders, about fifteen feet from the 

 ground. According to Mr. Emerson it is not at all common about 

 Hayward, Cal. A nest taken May 22, 1881, was placed on the large 

 horizontal limb of a sycamore, thirty feet from the ground ; another, 

 taken in Santa Cruz county, May 26, was also built in a similar posi- 

 tion at a height of forty feet. At Fort Klamath, Oregon, Dr. Merrill 

 found the nests usually built on a horizontal pine branch, often at 

 a considerable elevation ; sometimes they are placed against upright 

 twigs, and others merely saddled on the bare limb. Only one was 

 found in an aspen tree. They averaged rather deeper than the nests of 

 C. virens, and were not coated with lichens. The nests of the Western 

 Wood Pewee do not differ widely from those of the typical vtrens, except 



* A large series of the Wood Pewees' nests which I have personally taken in the past ten years are 

 before me. The best of them are far inferior in design to even the poorest nests built by the Blue-gray Gnat- 

 catcher and Ruby-throated Hummingbird, whose structures have high walls, gracefully turned brims, deeply 

 cupped interiors and highly artistic, lichen-covered exteriors. Some of the nests of the Wood Pewee are 

 scantily ornamented with lichens, are very shallow, and at once suggest a one-story, flimsy, poverty-stricken 

 home. 



