228 BULLETIN 179, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



She found the nest on June 21, 1929, "in a forest of pines and firs 

 on the Sierran summit at an altitude of 7600 feet," in Eldorado 

 County. It was 6 feet from the ground in a tamarack tree and 

 "placed where several small trees and a slanting sapling came to- 

 gether and thereby offered concealment, but it was not woven to 

 the limb as the nests of the Wright Flycatcher are." A few days 

 later, her husband, Milton S. Ray, was able to identify the nest by 

 shooting the parent bird. "The nest was rather loosely made for 

 a flycatcher and is basically composed of dark red bark strips, to- 

 gether with light gray bark strips, rootlets, grasses, stems, feathers, 

 string, cocoons and woolly substances, and thickly lined with feathers. 

 The outside measurements are, top, 3^4 by 4I/2 inches; depth, 2^ 

 inches. The nest cavity is 2 inches in diameter by 1 inch in depth." 



Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) report an interesting nest 

 found by them in a lodgepole pine in the Lassen Peak region of 

 California : 



The nest is of rather unexpected construction, in that three successive years' 

 occupation of the site is in evidence. The lowermost of the three layers that 

 are distinguishable is hard-packed, resistant to the touch, and fitted closelj 

 into the supporting crotch and against the accessory side branch ; upon this 

 is a less compact but also weathered layer about 20 mm. thick as viewed 

 on the exposed surface; above this is the new, current nest proper with free 

 rim showing about 20 mm. still higher. The color of this new and super- 

 imposed cup is, in sharp contrast to that of the other two layers, light brown 

 because of its constituent material being of unweathered but dried coarse 

 light-brown vegetable fibers and grass stems, mixed with blackish filaments of 

 a lichen. This latest increment is well rounded and of close texture. 



Major Bendire (1895) describes several nests from different locali- 

 ties that were located in conifers and made of similar materials. He 

 suggests, as several others have done, that the nests of Hammond's 

 flycatcher more nearly resemble in shape and position the nests of 

 the wood pewee than those of the other Empidonaces. He also men- 

 tions some nests in the National Museum, collected by Roderick Mac- 

 Farlane, in British Columbia, some of which "were apparently placed 

 in upright crotches of willows, and others on horizontal limbs close 

 to the trunks of small conifers, at no great distance from the ground." 



Although the parent birds came with these nests, there is the possi- 

 bility that some of his collectors may have made mistakes, or the 

 specimens become mixed. There are numerous other published ac- 

 counts of supposed nests of this species, in upright crotches and at 

 low elevations in small trees and bushes, that apparently resemble the 

 nests of Wright's flycatcher. They look suspicious, in view of all 

 that has been said above, and may be referable to the latter species. 



Eggs. — Three or four eggs make up the usual set for Hammond's 

 flycatcher. They are mostly ovate and have little or no gloss when 



