BUFF-BREASTED FLYCATCHER 255 



my experience rather shy and difficult to approach as well, it is a species that 

 is most easily overlooked. It arrives in the Huachucas about the middle of 

 April, and all the migrating birds I have taken have been along the base of 

 the mountains, where they were usually sitting in low bushes or weeds. ♦ * • 

 On May 26, 1903, I found these flycatchers breeding near the head of Tanner 

 Canyon in such a way as to almost indicate a "colonizing" tendency, for I found 

 seven or eight pair breeding within a radius of about a quarter of a mile, and 

 three or four of these were within a hundred yards of each other. This may 

 htive been due, however, to the exceptionally favorable nature of the ground ; 

 for it was different from most of the region thereabout in that the canyon 

 opened out into a considerable area of low, rolling hills, covered with a scatter- 

 ing growth of large pines. 



Nesting. — ^We did not succeed in finding any nests of the buff- 

 breasted flycatcher while I was in the Huachuca Mountains, but my 

 companion, Frank C. Willard, found two nests after I left; one nest 

 was destroyed by jays or squirrels, but he collected a set of three 

 eggs from the other, a typical nest in a pine tree. He had had con- 

 siderable experience with this bird in past years and published an 

 interesting article (1923b) on it, from which I quote as follows: 



Early in June, 1897, I was climbing the last slope up to the main ridge 

 of the Huachuca Mountains in Cochise County, Arizona. During a pause for 

 breath, a small bird flitting about among some young pine trees five or six feet 

 tall caught my eye, and a few moments of observation convinced me that it 

 was another of the numerous strangers to me. This was my first year in the 

 West, and nearly every day was bringing new acquaintances. While I was 

 debating the probable identity of this flycatcher, as its actions and appearance 

 betokened it, the bird dropped to the ground, picked up a fine rootlet, and 

 flew up into one of a group of tall pines about seventy-flve yards away. * * • 

 A week later I was standing near the pine tree where the bird had been last 

 seen. A club thrown among the branches flushed her, as the alarm note she 

 uttered announced; but I could not see her, nor could any sight of the nest be 

 obtained. Strapping on my climbers, I was soon astride the first branch forty 

 feet up. A careful scanning of all the nearby branches failed to reveal the 

 nest, and I stood up and clasped my arms around the trunk of the tree pre- 

 paratory to climbing higher. Something soft gave under my hand and I knew 

 without looking that it was the nest. Hastily climbing to the branch above, I 

 looked down into a small, deeply hollowed cup, snug against the trunk and 

 saddled on a short stub about three inches in diameter. Another longer stub 

 was a few inches almost directly above it. Three cream colored eggs were the 

 contents. While I was busy packing them, the female came close, scolding 

 vigorously. 



On May 23, 1907, he found a nest in the same region in a small 

 white oak on a steep mountain side. "The nest was twelve feet up 

 from the ground, saddled on the lower prong of a fork, the upper 

 prong forming a protective overhang." He found several other nests 

 that year, all of which were similarly located, with a protective prong, 

 stub or branch above the nest. He says of the composition of the 

 nest : "The nest is. composed .largely of lichen-like leaves, dark gray 



