262 FLYCATCHERS 



cherry thickets in canyons or more commonly from orchards and 

 villages, is pleasantly associated with a fluffy, white-breasted little 

 figure flitting about among leafy branches, snapping its bill and 

 shaking its wings and tail in its flycatching. Like most of its rela 

 tives it makes up for lack of song by a variety of pleasing little 

 conversational notes and t\Yitterings. 



468. Empidonax hammondi (Xantus). Hammond Flycatcher. 

 Adults. — Upper parts grayish olive, grayer anteriorly ; wing- bars whit- 

 ish or yellowish ; outer tail feather more or 

 less edged with whitish ; throat grayish ; breast 

 olivaceous, almost as dark as back ; belly and 

 under tail coverts yellowish ; width of bill at 

 nostrils less than half the exposed culmen. 



Young : tinged with brown, wing bars yellowish brown. Male : length 

 5.50-5.75, wing- 2.6(.)-2.80, tail 2.30-2.50, bill .58-.51), bill from 

 nostril .2(5-.29, width at base, .22-.24, tarsus .60-. 68. Female : 

 length 5.25, wing- 2.45-2.75, tail 2.15-2.40. 



Remarks. — Hammondi has the smallest and narrowest 

 bill of any of the genus Empidonax except fulvifrons and/*. 

 pygmcea, and it differs from them by having- a dark chest 

 band. 



Distribution. — Breeds in Transition and Canadian zones . ,„^ 

 of western North America east to the eastern slopes of the 

 Rocky Mountains and adjoining- ranges, and from Lesser Slave Lake and 

 interior of Alaska south probably to mountains of Arizona and New Mex- 

 ico ; migrates to Lower California and southern Mexico. 



Nest. — In willow^s, eottonwoods. or aspens, or on horizontal limbs of 

 pine or fir, 2 to 50 feet from the ground ; made of plant stems and fibers, 

 bark, and down, sometimes lined with grass-tops, hair, feathers, scales of 

 conifer buds, and hypnum moss Eggs: usually 3 or 4, creamy white, 

 generally unspotted, or if spotted, minutely so, with brown around the 

 larger end. 



Food. — Insects, especially ants. 



In northern Idaho Dr. Merrill found hammondi more abundant 

 than in Montana or Oregon, and as common among young cotton- 

 woods and willows along rivers and near swamps as in dry woods 

 among pines, its notes being heard almost everywhere. Mr. Daw- 

 son gives its notes as a ' brisk sewick, sewick, and at rarer intervals 

 switc7i-oo, ov swecehoo.' 



469. Empidonax wrightii Baird. Wright Flycatcher. 

 Similar to hammondi, but bill wider, plumage grayer above, whiter below, 



throat often whitish ; outer web of outer tail feather abruptly 



paler than inner web, usually whitish. Length: 5.75-6.40. 



Male : wing 2.70-2.05, tail 2.55-2.80, bill .62-69, bill from 



nostril .32-.3S, width at base .24-.27, tarsus .71-77. Female : 



wing 2.55-2.75, tail 2.50-2.65. 



Remarks. — The white outer tail feather and light breast 



\ distinguish ivrightii from hammondi, for though hammondi 



Fig. 342. often has a white edge to its tail feather its chest band is 



dark gray. 



