FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER 81 



tailf Gathers ; but others bravely held their perches. As the day grew 

 older, they flocked over the sahanas and were not again to be seen 

 in the trees about the village until the day waned. 



"With the fork-tailed flycatchers on the sabanas, I frequently found 

 small flocks of wintering myrtle warblers. The warblers not only 

 foraged about the low bushes in which the flycatchers rested, but the 

 two kinds of birds, so dissimilar in appearance and habits, changed 

 iheir feeding grounds together. While I sometimes found the myrtle 

 warblers alone, I saw them in the company of the fork-tailed fly- 

 catchers too often for the association to be accidental. The warb- 

 lers seem to have a definite preference for the company of the 

 flycatchers, just as their near relatives, the Audubon's warblers, like 

 to accompany the bluebirds in the highlands of Guatemala." 



Hudson (1920) refers to a remarkable habit of these flycatchers as 

 follows: "They are not gregarious, but once every day, just before 

 the sun sets, all the birds living near together rise to the tops of the 

 trees, calling to one another with loud, excited chirps, and then 

 mount upwards like rockets to a great height in the air; then, after 

 whirling about for a few moments, they precipitate themselves down- 

 wards with the greatest violence, opening and shutting their tails 

 during their wild zig-zag flight, and uttering a succession of sharp, 

 grinding notes. After this curious performance they separate in 

 pairs, and perching on the treetops each couple utters together its 

 rattling Castanet notes, after which the company breaks up." 



Voice. — Some of the notes of the fork-tailed flycatcher, as heard by 

 Hudson, are mentioned above. The bird that Audubon (1840) shot 

 uttered a "sharp squeak, which it repeated, accompanied with smart 

 clicks of its bill." Mr. Skutch says in his note: "The only sound I 

 have heard a fork-tailed flycatcher utter is a low, weak, somewhat 

 croaking monosyllable ; but as the birds rested quietly in the tops of 

 their orange trees early in the morning, they would sometimes join 

 their slight voices in a sudden wave of sound, which lasted only a few 

 seconds, then died away almost as abruptly as it had begun. When 

 many voices were united in this fashion, they produced a sound of 

 considerable volume." 



Field marks. — The fork-tailed flycatcher could hardly be mistaken 

 for anything else, except that, at a great distance and in unfavorable 

 light, it might resemble in general appearance the swallow-tailed fly- 

 catcher, a closely related species of similar shape and behavior. But, 

 under any ordinary circumstances, its pure-white under parts, gray 

 back, black crown, and long black tail are strikingly distinctive. 



DISTRIBUTIOX 



Range. — The fork-tailed flycatcher is a tropical species that ranges 

 from southern Veracruz (Tlacotalpan and Playa Vincente) ; Quin- 



