SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER 89 



sunrise) the male beguu to shout pup-pup-pup-pup-pup-ptip-perl&p 16 times a 

 minute for about four minutes. Tlien for three minutes nothing was heard 

 but a few pups. At 5:07 he began with a new note, pup-pup-pnp-per6o, lower 

 and less loud than the first phrase, the number of pups varying from one to 

 three, the most common number being two. A minute later he started to fly 

 about, but kept up a continuous chatter of pup-pcr6o till 5:12. 



In further description of the same songs, she says elsewhere 

 (1931b) : "He and his mate then flew away, but were back at the 

 nest at 5.18 with loud pups. At 5.27 just as the sun was rising over 

 the prairie, the female sat on the barbed wire fence with wings held 

 straight out from her body and her tail spread to its fullest extent. 

 Later the male assumed this same attitude, at the same time saying 

 peelyer per. At 5:42 he returned to the nest and gave a last 

 pup-pup-peroo. * * * The pup-pup-pup -pup-pup-pup-perleep was 

 about one second long; the intervals between beginnings of phrases 

 varied from 3.5 to 4 seconds. The pups were uttered rapidly, giving 

 the effect of a stutter; the emphasis was on the p&rleep.'''' 



Field marks. — There is no excuse for not recognizing a swallow- 

 tailed flycatcher, with its extremely long tail, its soft gray, salmon- 

 pink, white and black colors, offset with a dash of scarlet under the 

 wing. The black upper parts of the fork-tailed flycatcher, and the 

 absence of pink, will distinguish the only other long-tailed flycatcher 

 with which it might possibly be confused. 



Ememies. — The dwarf cowbird sometimes lays its eggs in the 

 nest of this flycatcher (Simmons, 1925). 



FaU. — Early in September the old and young birds begin to gather 

 into flocks and wander about in preparation for migration; by the 

 end of that month most of them have gone from the northern portions 

 of their range. The migration seems to be mad© mainly during the 

 night. Referring to southeastern Texas, Henry Nehrling (1882) 

 says: "In September, after the breeding season, they gather in large 

 flocks, visiting the cotton fields, where multitudes of cotton worms 

 {Aletia argillacea) and their moths abound, on which they, with 

 many other small birds, eagerly feed; early in October they depart 

 for the South." 



According to Dr. J. C. Merrill (1878), "about the middle of 

 October, 1876, just before sunset, a flock of at least one hundred and 

 fifty of these birds passed over the fort [at Brownsville] ; they were 

 flying leisurely southward, constantly pausing to catch passing 

 insects; and in the rays of the setting sun their salmon-colored sides 

 seemed bright crimson." 



In El Salvador, Mr. van Rossem (Dickey and van Rossem, 1938) 

 observed that "the first scissor-tailed flycatchers to arrive in the fall 

 were noted at Divisadero on October 10, 1925, when a single adult 

 female was taken in a dead-topped tree in an old cornfield. On the 



