280 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



open deciduous tree growth along the borders of lakes and small bodies 

 of fresh water ; and in such localities one can expect to find the species 

 year after year. Seldom are there more than a pair or two of these 

 birds in any certain locality; usually they seem to be somewhat 

 separated." 



James B. Dixon writes to me of California haunts : "This is a com- 

 mon breeder from the Pacific Ocean to the tops of our highest coastal 

 range in San Diego County. It is commoner in the sycamore groves of 

 the stream beds but is f omid in the conifers of the higher elevations and 

 also is common in the aspen thickets at the higher elevations in the 

 Mono Basin in Mono County." In Arizona we found the western wood 

 pewee in the lower, more open portions of the canyons where there was 

 a heavy growth of large sycamores, cottonwoods, and other trees along 

 the beds of the mountain streams, at elevations of 5,000 to 6,000 feet 

 but not in the higher portions of the mountains or in the lower valleys. 



Nesting. — In the choice of a nesting site the western wood pewee 

 show^s no special preference for any particular species of tree, provided 

 it can find a suitable fork or horizontal branch on which to place its 

 nest. And nests are often placed on dead branches or on wholly dead 

 trees; dead aspens seem to be highly favored. J. Donald Daynes 

 writes to me from Salt Lake City, Utah, that within an area of 40 

 acres of aspen trees he found five nests; three of these were in dead 

 aspens and all were on dead limbs; they ranged in height from 10 to 

 50 feet above ground. Sycamores and cottonwoods seem to be popular 

 trees, and nests have been recorded in walnuts, boxelders, ashes, birches, 

 qlders, various oaks, maples, hackberry, and eucalyptus trees, ma- 

 drones, various pines, larches or tamaracks, cedars, firs, and spruces, 

 as well as orchard trees. W. E. D. Scott (1879) mentions a nest that 

 "was built where three branches crossed in a brushheap two feet from 

 the ground." This, of course, is a very unusual location and a very 

 low one; most of the nests are placed at heights ranging from 15 to 30 

 feet above ground ; often they are as high as 40 feet and sometimes 50 

 or even 75 feet. 



Mr. Rathbun writes to me of the nesting habits of this pewee in 

 Washington : "The breeding period of this flycatcher, in this section 

 at least, appears a little extended, or from quite early in June to about 

 the middle of July. Our experience with its nesting habits has shown 

 us that when the first nest is taken it is very quickly replaced by 

 another. On one occasion when I took a nest, at the end of several 

 days a second had been completed and held an egg. In another 

 instance, on the eleventh day thereafter the new nest had three eggs; 

 and in each case the second nest was placed very near where the first 

 one had been. 



