VERMILION FLYCATCHER 303 



display. Starting from his perch on the top of some tall weed stalk, 

 or low dead branch, he mounts upward 20, 30, or even 50 feet, in an 

 ecstasy of excitement, his fiery crest erected, his glowing breast ex- 

 panded, his tail lifted and spread, and his wings vibrating rapidly, 

 as he hovers like a sparrow hawk in rising circles; and at frequent 

 intervals he pours forth a delightful, soft, twittering, tinkling love 

 song, all for the delectation of his chosen mate, clad in somber colors 

 and hidden in the foliage below ; then slowly he flutters down to claim 

 her, and the two fly off together, unless perhaps some other more 

 fortunate suitor has won her. William Beebe (1905) has expressed it 

 very well as follows: 



Up shoots one from a mesquite tree, with full, rounded crest, and breast puffed 

 out until it seems a floating ball of vermilion — buoyed up on vibrating wings. 

 Slowly, by successive upward throbs, the bird ascends, at each point of vibrating 

 rest uttering his little love song — a cheerful ching-tink-a-le-tink ! ching-tmk-a-le- 

 tink! which is the utmost he can do. When at the limit of his flight, fifty or 

 seventy -five feet above our heads, he redoubles his efforts, and the chings and the 

 tinks rapidly succeed each other. Suddenly, his little strength exhausted, the 

 suitor drops to earth almost vertically in a series of downward swoops, and 

 alights near the wee gray form for which he at present exists. He watches 

 eagerly for some sign of favor, but a rival is already climbing skyward, whose 

 feathers seem no brighter than his, whose simple lay of love is no more eager, 

 no more tender, yet some subtle fate, with workings too fine for our senses, de- 

 cides against the first suitor, and, before the second bird has regained his perch, 

 the female fiies low over the cactus-pads, followed by the breathless performer. 



Nesting. — The nests that we found in Arizona were in willows or 

 sycamores, in horizontal forks, at heights ranging from 8 to 20 feet 

 from the ground, generally not far from an irrigation ditch, stream, 

 or other body of water. Other nests have been found there in cotton- 

 W'Oods, oaks, mesquites, paloverde, and hackberry trees. Mr. Dawson 

 (1923) mentions nests as high as 40 and even 60 feet above ground. 

 Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1914b) found a nest in the Colorado Valley that 

 "was fiftj'^-four inches above the ground, saddled on the bare forking 

 branch of a dead mesquite standing in an open area thirty-five yards 

 from the river bank." And Dr. J. C. Merrill (1878) says that in south- 

 em Texas "the nests are usually placed upon horizontal forks of 

 ratama-trees, growing upon the edge of a prairie, and rarely more 

 than six feet from the ground." 



With the exception of one nest, in the Thayer collection, which was 

 evidently built on a drooping limb of a sycamore tree and was sup- 

 ported by upward-slanting twigs, all the nests that I have seen or 

 read about were placed in horizontal crotches or forks, generally on 

 rather small limbs. The nest is a flat, well-made structure, usually 

 sunken well down into the fork, so that its rim projects very little 

 above the supporting branch and is very inconspicuous; as viewed 

 from below or from one side it appears like a slight enlargement on 

 the branch, and the materials of which it is made add to the deception. 



