392 THE WRIGHT FLYCATCHER. 



more or less pale below and dusky tiiiped. Yoiiny birds are whitish below and the 

 wing-bands are buffy as in other species. Length about 5.75 ( 146) : wing 2.69 

 (68 I ; tail 2.40 ( 61 ) : bill .47 ( 12 ) ; tarsus .71 ( 18 I. 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler ^ize: jirevailing gray coloration : whitish eye- 

 ring; exce>bi\eh- retiring habits. 



Nesting. — Nest: of hemp, bark-strips, etc., softly lined ; built in upright 

 crotch of bush. Eggs: 4 or 3, white, unmarked. .\v. size, .68 x .52 ( 17.3 x 13.2 ). 

 Season: June; one brood. 



General Range. — Western United States and southern LSritisli Columbia, 

 breeding in Transition and Canadian life-zones, south to southern Arizona and 

 east to Rocky !\Iountains ; south in winter thru southern California and Mexico. 



Authorities. — Dawson, Auk, Xdl. X]\'. Apr. 1897, p. 176. 



Specimens. — I'rov. C. 



BIRD-.\FRAID-OF-HIS-SHADOW is the name this shy recluse de- 

 serves. The few seen in Washington have always been skulking in the 

 depths of brush patches, or in clumps of thorn Imshes, and they seem to 

 dread nothing so mnch as the human eye. For all they keep so close to 

 co\'er thev move about restlessly and are never still long enough to afford 

 an\' satisfaction to the beholder. 



The only note I have ever heard it utter (and this repeatedly by different 

 individtials ) was a soft liquid szvit. But Major Bendire says of its occur- 

 rence at Fort Klamatli in Oregon: "I do not consider this species as noisy 

 as the Little Flycatcher [£. traillil] which was nearly as common, but its 

 notes are very similar; in fact they are not easily distinguishable, but are 

 given with less vigor than those of the former, while in its actions it is 

 fullv as energetic and s|)rightly as any of the species of the genus Enipi- 

 doiiax." 



Wright's Flvcatcher aft'ects higher altitudes than du the cither species 

 during the nesting season. The nest is i)laced at heights ranging from two 

 to twenty feet, and is built in upright forks of bushes, or against the trunks 

 of small saplings. Willows, alders, aspens, buck-larush, and serxice berry are 

 common hosts. Perhaps the only nesting record for Washington consists 

 of a set of four fresh eggs taken by myself from a draw on the side of 

 Boulder Mountain overlooking the vStehekin A'alley, on May 30, 1896. The 

 nest had been deserted because of a brush fire wdiich had swept the draw, 

 but it w^as uninjured; and the situation, an alder fork eight feet up, together 

 with the Tt7;;7r eggs, made identification certain. 



