SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER 83 



has wandered widely beyond this range, as far north as Hudson Bay, 

 as far east as New Brunswick, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and 

 Florida, and as far w^est as Colorado. 



The scissor-tailed flycatcher is a bird of the open country. We 

 found it generally distributed in the coastal prairie region of Texas 

 from Corpus Christi to Brownsville, in the trees along the country 

 roadsides, on the open prairies dotted with small trees and mottes, 

 on the mesquite prairies, in the open chaparral country, about the 

 ranches, and even in the small towns. It was often seen sitting on the 

 telephone wires, on fence posts, and on wire fences, quite familiar and 

 unafraid. 



Spring. — A. J. van Rossem (Dickey and van Rossem, 1938) says 

 that in El Salvador "the northward movement starts about April 1. 

 On April 5, 1926, a flight of about 100 birds, strmig out with many 

 yards between individual members, was seen passing along the foot- 

 hills near Divisadero. From April 15 to 27, 1926, numbers were seen 

 each evening over the city of San Salvador, flying westward low over 

 the housetops and stopping frequently to perch on flagpoles or tele- 

 phone wires. Fully a hundred were seen each evening, the straggling 

 flocks being often accompanied by other migrating species such as 

 Tyrannus tyrannus and Petrochelidon alhifrons^ 



Courtskip. — Herbert Brandt (1940) writes: 



During his courting; days and even until the eggs are hatched, the male 

 engages in one of the most fantastic of feathered sky-dances. Mounting the 

 air to a height of perhaps a hundred feet, he starts his routine by plunging 

 downward for about a fourth of the distance, then turns sharply upward to 

 nearly the previous height; and he repeats this up and down zigzag course 

 several times, emitting meanwhile a rolling, cacliling sound like rapid, high- 

 pitched hand-clapping. This he seems to produce by loud snapping of the 

 mandibles, or it may be a vocal effort, or both, though I observed it to be 

 the former. The last upward flight may take him still higher, and his path 

 then becomes a vertical line. When the flycatcher reaches the zenith of this 

 flight, so vivacious is his ardor that over he topples backward, making two or 

 three consecutive reverse somersaults, descending like a Tumbler Pigeon, all 

 the while displaying to his mate the soft, effective, under-wing colors. 



This active display is remarkably emphasized by the long, flowing tail 

 that becomes an expressive banner of showmanship, and it is then that one 

 realizes its nuptial significance. That dual appendage, the like of which is 

 possessed by no other North American bird, adds to every movement the smooth, 

 effortless rhythm of superb body grace; and consequently the aerial ballet of 

 the Scissor-tail is incomparable in flowing, graceful action and flirtatious 

 courtship interpretation. 



Nesting. — The scissor-tailed flycatcher may place its carelessly built 

 nest almost anywhere. George Finlay Simmons (1925) says that its 

 location may be "7 to 30 feet from the ground, generally on a hori- 

 zontal limb or fork, less commonly in a crotch, in an isolated, open- 

 foliaged hackberry, mesquite, cedar elm, eastern live oak, or horn- 

 beam retama tree, standing alongside a country road, a fencerow, or 



