274 Birds of Colorado 



feet (Gale) ; Breckenridge, breeding at 9,700 feet (Carter) ; Green 

 Mountain Falls, 7,700 feet, in El Paso cc, and Beaver Creek, Fremont 

 CO. (Aiken) ; San Juan co., breeding up to 10,000 feet (Drew). 



It arrives late (May 24th in Fremont co., Aiken), and nests at the 

 end of June or beginning of July, and returns south in September. 



Habits. — ^This Flycatcher generally affects narrow 

 canons, or shady glades near a mountain stream. It 

 sometimes perches on dead tree-tops, whence it keeps 

 watch for passing insects. It has a somewhat plaintive 

 call of two low notes, and a clear, pleasing song as well. 

 A nest found by A. W. Anthony on June 25th, 

 in the San Juan co., was placed on a ledge of rock, about 

 ten feet above the cart road ; it was a large ball of green 

 moss, with a little cup in the centre lined with hair ; 

 the eggs, generally three in number, are creamy-white, 

 spotted and blotched with cinnamon, rufous and buffy- 

 pink ; they measure about "66 x '52. Out of nine nests 

 taken by Gale, three were from mine-shafts or tunnels. 



Traill's Flycatcher. Empidonax irailli. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 466— Colorado Records— Aiken 72, p. 206 

 (E. pusilhis) ; Henshaw 75, p. 356 ; Minot 80, p. 231 ; Drew 81, p. 140 

 85, p. 17 ; Morrison 88, p. 107 ; 89, p. 146 ; Bendire 92, p. 305 

 H. G. Smith 96, p. 76 ; Cooke 97, pp. 88, 209 ; Henderson 03, p. 235 

 09, p. 233 ; Warren 06, p. 21. 



Description. — Above dull olive-brown, slightly darker on the crown ; 

 wings and tail dark brown, the secondaries edged with whitish-olive 

 and the middle- and greater -coverts broadly tipped with pale buffy, 

 forming two conspicuous wing-bands ; below ashy-grey, white on the 

 throat, duskier on the breast, becoming pale primrose on the flanks 

 and abdomen ; tenth (outer) primary longer than the fifth ; tail even. 

 Iris brown, upper mandible blackish-brown, lower pale brownish- 

 white, legs brownish-black. Length 5-20 ; wing 2-70 ; tail 2-40 ; 

 culmen -50 ; tarsus -60. 



The sexes are alike, and the young birds hardly differ from the adults. 



Distribution. — Breeding in western North America from southern 

 Alaska through Idaho to the Mississippi Valley and westwards ; in 

 winter, south over Mexico and Central America to Colombia. 



Trail's Flycatcher is a common summer resident in Colorado from 

 the plains to about 8,000 feet. It reaches EI Paso co. about May 15th, 



