150 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN 



arrive and the last seen. The broad-tailed came soon 

 after the black-chinned and was also common through 

 the early part of April, leaving later for its higher 

 breeding range in the Guadalupe and Sacramento 

 mountains. The black-chinned remains to breed at 

 the caves and actually nests in the great doorway of 

 the west entrance to the Carlsbad Cave, and under the 

 arched entrance of the Bighorn Cave, fifteen miles 

 farther west. I was hoping to find the blue-throated 

 and other hummers when the ocotillos spread their 

 scarlet flags over the hot slopes, but was compelled to 

 leave on May 10 before they were fairly out. 



Of flycatchers, the gray-backed, yellow-bellied Cas- 

 sin kingbirds are most conspicuous in the cottonwoods 

 of towns and ranches in the valley, where they breed 

 in friendly proximity to man, while the scarcely distin- 

 guishable Arkansas kingbirds seem to be more com- 

 monly found up in the hill country. A few ash- 

 throated flycatchers, with brown crests, were seen 

 around the cave in April, and they undoubtedly breed 

 in the vicinity. A few small flycatchers of the genus 

 Empidonax were seen about the cave, but as no speci- 

 mens were collected the species can not be given. The 

 wonderful scissor-^ailed flycatchers are said to breed at 

 the Livingston Ranch, thirty-five miles east of 

 Carlsbad. 



The brown-bellied Say 's phoebe, called locally the cave- 

 bird, because a pair actually nests down in the natural 

 shaft of the cave, is one of the common and very friendly 

 birds of the region. Single birds or pairs were seen over 

 valley and canyon country from the time of my arrival, 



