390 THE HAMiMOND FLYCATCHER. 



No. 150. 

 HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER. 



A. O. U. No. 468. Empidonax hammondi (Xantus). 



Synonxm. — Dirty Little Flycatcher. 



Description. — Adult: Above olive-gray inclining to ashy on foreparts, — 

 color continued on sides, throat and breast well down, only slightly paler than back ; 

 remaining underparts yellowish in various degrees, or sometimes scarcely tinged 

 with yellow^; pattern and color of wing much as in preceding species; outermost 

 rectrix edged with whitish on outer web ; bill comparatively small and narrow, 

 black above, dusky or blackish below. Young birds present a minimum of yellow 

 below and their wing-markings are buffy instead of whitish. Length about 5.50 

 (139.7) ; wing 2.80 ( 71 ) : tail 2.29 ( 58) ; bill .41 ( 10.5) ; breadth of bill at nostril 

 .19 (4.83 ) ; tarsus .63 ( 16). Females average a little smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size, the smallest of the four Washington 

 Einpidonaces, and possibly the most difficult (where all are vexing) ; olive-gray 

 of plumage gives impression of blackish at distance ; the most sordid below of the 

 Protean quartette; nests high in coniferous trees; eggs white. 



Nesting. — Mcst: of fir-twigs, grasses and moss, lined with fine grasses, 

 vegetable down and hair; placed on horizontal limb of fir tree at considerable 

 heights. Eggs: 4, pale creamy white, unmarked. Av. size, .65 x .51 (16.5 x 12.7). 

 Season : June ; one brood. 



General Range. — Western North America north to southeastern Alaska, 

 the valley of the Upper Yukon and Athabasca, breeding south, chiefly in the 

 mountains, to Colorado and California; south in winter thru Mexico to the high- 

 lands of Guatemala. 



Range in Washington. — Summer resident in coniferous timber on both 

 sides of the Cascades, irregularly abundant anrl local in distribution. 



Authorities. — ["Hammond's fly-catcher," [ohnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 

 (1885), 22. 1 Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds," Vol. H. 1895, p. 3isff. D". Ra. 

 D-\ B. E(H). 



Specimens. — C. 



HAMMONDI is the western analogue of iiiiniiiius. the well-known Least 

 Flycatcher of the East. It has not, however, attained any such distinctness in 

 the ptiblic mind, nor is it likely to except in favored localities. These chosen 

 stations are quite as likely to be in the city as elsewhere ; but no sooner do we 

 begin to arrive at conclusions as to its habits, notes, etc., than the bird forsakes 

 the region and oiu- work is all to do over again at some distant time. 



Li the summer of 1S05 I found Hammond Flycatchers fairly abundant 

 on Capitol Hill (which was then in its pin-feather stage). Twenty or thirty 

 might have been seen in the course of a morning's walk in June. Ever^'where 



a. Ridgway (P.. of N. & M. .-Xm.) recognizes two color rl'ases of this bird, a white- and a yellow- 

 bellied. In the latter the plumage of npperparts inclines more strongly to olivaceous. 



