234 BULLETIN 179, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Yukon (casually), and west-central Saskatchewan south to southern 

 California, Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas, and east to 

 the eastern base of the Kocky Mountains." Throughout this range 

 it is confined mainly to the foothills and slopes of the various moun- 

 tain ranges, at elevations varying with latitude. 



L. B. Howsley has sent me some extensive notes on the habits 

 of this flycatcher in Stevens County, eastern Washington, in which 

 he says of its haunts: "The altitude ranged from 900 feet to 2,800 

 feet above sea level. However, this flycatcher was rarely observed 

 above the 1,500 foot level, and most nests were found at much lower 

 altitudes. The favorite nesting habitat seemed to be the lower, 

 more open, and rolling slopes and the benches scattered here and 

 there, especially those portions covered with a species of willow which 

 grew in isolated clumps throughout the area. Logged-off lands 

 were evidently preferred, probably on account of the open situations 

 available." 



Henry J. Rust writes to me that "this species; arrives in northern 

 Idaho about the middle of May and is found sparingly distributed 

 over the low, brushy hillsides and partly wooded flats." Mrs. Flor- 

 ence M. Bailey (1928) writes: "In Colorado in summer, Mr. Henshaw 

 found the Wright Flycatcher a bird of the mountains, frequenting 

 deciduous trees and bushes along streams; and in Arizona he found 

 it among the oak openings; but in the vicinity of Santa Fe he saw 

 it on pinyon-clad hills, and at Lake Burford Doctor Wetmore found 

 it common among junipers and pines on the dry hillsides above the 

 gulches." 



Referring to the Great Basin region, Robert Ridgway (1877) says 

 that "it inhabits both the aspen groves and copses of the higher 

 caiions and the mahogany woods of the middle slopes, in which 

 places it is sometimes one of the most numerous of the smaller 

 birds." In California, Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) say 

 that in the Lassen Peak region, "we gain a picture of chaparral 

 with trees scattered through it, as characterizing the average 

 habitat." And, in the Yosemite region, Grinnell and Storer (1924) 

 found a pair in "about an acre of dense chaparral on a flat near 

 the stage barns. The thicket was about four feet high and com- 

 prised a dense growth of snowbush {Ceanothus cordulatus), green 

 manzanita, and chinquapin. The male had a number of forage 

 posts at the tops of some dwarfed black oaks which struggled up 

 slightly above the general level of the chaparral ; he would progress 

 from one to another of these in rather regular succession, catching 

 flies en route. Occasionally he would go up higher, 30 feet or so, 

 to one of the outstanding limbs of a neighboring sugar pine or 

 red fir, and from there he would sing." 



