232 BULLETIN 179, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



low elevations, wliile migrating and in the lowlands, when the birds 

 are mostly silent, recognition is almost hopeless. 



Bowles and Decker (1927), however, observe that "in life Ham- 

 mond's shows himself a dusky backed, sooty breasted, short tailed 

 little chap, while Wright's is a gray backed, light breasted, long 

 tailed bird, appearing decidedly the larger of the two. These 

 characteristics may seem a trifle exaggerated here, but as seen in 

 life they are recognizable at once. In fact, Hammond's suggests 

 more than anything else an undersized Western Wood Pewee." 



Fall. — Mr. Kathbun tells me that this species departs from Wash- 

 ington during September. W. E. D. Scott (1887) took specimens in 

 Arizona from early in October until the 25th of that month. But 

 Mr. Swarth (lOQl) states that in the Huachuca Mountains, Ariz., 

 they reappeared in August, "not in the foothills and along the 

 canyons," as in the spring, "but up in the pines, none being seen 

 below 9000 feet. The first was seen on August 26, and from that 

 time on, though not at all abundant, I found them in small num- 

 bers scattered through the pines along the divide." It would appear 

 from this that the fall migration is leisurely and quite prolonged; 

 this may be due to the fact that the fall molt is accomplished before 

 the birds reach their winter home. 



Winter. — Dickey and van Rossem (1938) found this flycatcher 

 to be a "common winter visitant to the oak-pine association of the 

 Arid Upper Tropical Zone of the interior mountains" of El Salva- 

 dor, "rarely straggling as high as 8,700 feet in the cloud forest of 

 the Humid Upper Tropical. Extremes of elevation are 3,500 and 

 8,700 feet. Dates of arrival and departure are November 21 and 

 March 12. * * * It is probable that the date of arrival is some- 

 what in advance of that given above, for the birds were present in 

 numbers on November 21, the initial day of collecting on Mt. 

 Cacaguatique." 



DISTRnJUTION 



Range. — ^Western North America; south in winter to El Salvador. 



Breeding range. — Hammond's flycatcher breeds north to Alaska 

 (Charlie Creek) ; and central Alberta (Lesser Slave Lake). East to 

 Alberta (Lesser Slave Lake and Jasper Park) ; western Montana 

 (Fortine, Flathead Lake, and Sourdough Canyon) ; Wyoming (Yel- 

 lowstone Park and Laramie) ; and Colorado (Nortligate, Gold Hill, 

 and Salida). South to southern Colorado (Salida and Fort Lewis) ; 

 southern Idaho (Emigration Canyon) ; and central California (Yo- 

 semite Valley and Grizzly Creek). West to California (Grizzly 

 Creek, Mineral, and Mount Shasta) ; Oregon (Little Butte Creek 

 and Powder River Mountains) ; Washington (Swamp Creek, Tacoma, 

 and Seattle) ; British Columbia (Nootka Sound, Hazelton, and 



