'\. 



382 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



16, 18G8 ; C. King, It. Kidgway) is remarkable for its pale ami unusually 

 grayish colors. Tliere 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 tliese 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 Mexi- 

 can species by Swainson in 1827. Since then it has been obtained by Sumi- 

 chrast 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 tlie Mexican Boundary Survey. Dr. Coues 

 found this bird a summer resident in Arizona, but rare. It amves 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 ilay 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. Eidgway 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 canons 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 swecr, much like the call of Chrysomitris pinits, but very often, 

 especially when the nest was approached, they uttered a soft liquid %vMt. In 

 the Toyabe Mountains, where tliese little Flycatchers were breeding abun- 

 dantly in tlie aspen copses, Mr. Eidgway found them to be so unsuspicious 

 that several were taken from the nest with his hand ; and one wliicli was 

 shot at and slightly wounded returned to her nest and suliered herself to 

 be taken off without showing any alarm. 



A nest obtained by Mr. Eidgway near Austin, in Nevada, July 3, 18G8, 

 was built in the crotch of a small aspen, about five feet from tlie ground. 

 This nest is a very neat, homogeneous, compact structure, cup-like in sliape, 

 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. 



