264 FLYCATCHERS 



fine straws, and rootlets, lined with fine fibers. Eggs : 3 or 4, oval, buff 

 or dull white. 



Mr. R. D. Lusk, who discovered the nest of the buff-breasted in 

 the Chiricahua Mountains, found the bird well named, the bright 

 Arizona sunlight bringing out the buff of its breast. He says that 

 the soft pit, pit' , of a pair he was watching was varied by a great 

 number of other notes, among them the cMcky-whew of the male. 



GENUS PYROCEPHALUS. 



471. Pyrocephalus rubineus mexicanus {Scl). Vermilion 

 Flycatcher. 



Head of male with lull rounded crest ; bill slender, narrow at base much 

 as in Sayornis ; tail nearly even, of broad feathers ; tarsus scarcely longer 

 than middle toe with claw. Adult male : erectile crown and under parts 

 brilliant scarlet ; upper parts grayish brown, darker on wings and tail. 

 Adult female : upper parts brownish gray ; under parts whitish, breast 

 streaked with gray; belly tinged with yellow, salmon, or red. Immature 

 male: like adult female, but with red appearing in crown and on breast. 

 Young: upper parts brownish gray, feathers edged with whitish ; under 

 parts whitish, streaked across breast, without reddish tinge on belly. A 

 rare melanistic phase of plumage is uniform dark brown tinged in male 

 with wine purple on crown and lower parts. Length : 5.50-6.25, wing 3.20- 

 3.40, tail 2.60-2.80. 



Distribution. — Breeds in Lower Sonoran and Tropical zones from south- 

 western Utah through southern New Mexico, Arizona, southwestern Texas, 

 southern California, and Lower California to Central America ; accidental 

 in Florida. 



Nest. — Frail and flimsy, made of short twigs, cocoons, down, plant 

 tops and fiber, lined with feathers, wool. hair, fur, or down, saddled on a 

 horizontal fork 6 to 50 feet from the ground in mesquite, palo verde, Cot- 

 tonwood, oak, and rarely willow. Eggs : 2 or 3, cream or buff, marked most 

 heavily about the larg-er end with bold irregular blotches and spots of 

 brown and purple. 



Food. — Insects, including grasshoppers and small beetles. 



Of all the rare Mexican birds seen in southern Arizona and Texas 

 the vermilion flycatcher is the gem, his brilliant scarlet body glow- 

 ing red even in the dim twilight. 



In an 'oak mott' of southern Texas, where we found jackdaws 

 and scissor-tail flycatchers, the little Pyrocephalus was at home the 

 last of April, so he doubtless nested there too. One of his favorite 

 perches was a dead oak twig close to the ground, and in making his 

 sallies for insects he swept out over the flower-covered field we were 

 trying to photograph, his image in the camera more beautiful than 

 the flowers themselves. 



When flycatching he often hovered over the grass in the regula- 

 tion flycatcher way, but besides he had a unique nuptial performance 

 of his own. When high in the air he would puff out the red feath- 

 ers of his breast and hold himself up, twittering volubly as long as 



