202 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



105^ per cent. Four-winged flies form the 

 largest item of the food, and for a short time 

 in midsummer ants constitute quite a notable 

 part ; but various wild bees and wasps make up 

 the bulk. No honeybees were found. 



Bugs in various forms, flies, moths, and cater- 

 pillars complete his menu. While the Black 



Phctbe does not improve every opportunity to 

 destroy harmful insects, it certainly neglects 

 many chances to eat useful ones. The destruc- 

 tion of a few predacious beetles, dragon flies, 

 and parasitic four-winged flies are the sum of 

 its sinning. Throughout its range, it is welcomed 

 and protected. 



OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER 



Nuttallornis borealis (Swainson) 



A. O. U. Number 459 See Color Plate 67 



Other Name. — Niittall's Pevvee. 



General Description. — Length, yYz inches. Upper 

 parts, dark gray ; under parts, white and gray. 



Color. — Above, plain slaty-olive or dark smoke-gray, 

 the feathers (especially on crown) darker centrally; 

 tail, dusky, the outer webs of feathers edged with 

 grayish-olive ; wings, sooty blackish, the iniddle coverts 

 margined terminally with grayish-olive, the greater 

 coverts narrowly edged with the same (passing into 

 whitish terminally), the secondaries edged (except 

 basally) with grayish-white, more broadly on inner 

 secondaries; sides of head (including cheeks) and 

 neck plain slaty-olive, like upper parts; chest {except 

 center line), sides of breast, sides, and flanks, brownish- 

 gray, tinged with olive, streaked ivith darker; rest of 

 under parts, white (often tinged with pale yellow), the 

 sides of throat and center portion of chest streaked with 

 brownish-gray, the under tail-coverts with broad V- 

 shaped markings of the same ; under wing-coverts, 

 brownish-gray narrowly edged with paler ; a conspicu- 



ous patch of soft, fluffy zvliitc or ycllou'ish-ii'liite 

 feathers above flanks (on sides of rump), usually con- 

 cealed but capable of being spread over secondaries of 

 the closed wing; bill, brownish-black; iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : Saddled on branch or in 

 fork of coniferous tree, generally at great height. 40 to 

 60 feet, in burned-over tracts ; less compactly con- 

 structed than the Wood Pewee's, but of similar 

 materials with the addition of some moss. Eggs: 

 Normally 3. identical in color and markings with those 

 of that bird, but larger. 



Distribution. — North and South America ; breeds 

 from central Alaska, southern Mackenzie, southern 

 Keewatin, central Quebec, and Cape Breton Island and 

 south in the coniferous forests of the western United 

 States to southern California, Arizona, and western 

 Texas, and also northern Michigan, New York, and 

 Massachusetts south along the higher AUeghenies to 

 North Carolina ; migrates through Mexico and Central 

 .\merica ; winters in northern South America. 



The Olive-sided Flycatcher is a bird of very 

 wide distribution. It is included by Dr. Chap- 

 man in his book about the birds of the Eastern 

 States, and Mrs. Bailey gives it a paragraph in 

 her work devoted to the ornithology of the West, 

 mentioning especially its occurrence in the fir- 

 tree belt on Mount Shasta, " where its voice is 

 one of the commonest forest sounds, as the even- 

 ing shadows gathered over the noble trees under 

 which we were camped." It has a habit, not 

 common with the Flycatchers, of perching in the 

 topmost branches of a tree. Without identify- 

 ing the bird, Thoreau gave this good description 

 of its characteristic flycatching performance : 

 " Looking round for its prey and occasionally 

 changing its ])erch, it every now and then darts 

 ofif (Phoebe-like), even five or six rods, toward 

 the earth to catch an insect, and then returns to 



its favorite perch. If I lose it for a moment, I 

 soon see it settling on the dead twigs again and 

 hear its till, till, till." Apparently Thoreau did 

 not see the bird dart almost if not quite perpen- 

 dicularly upward, which it often does. 



The bird's loud, characteristic and rather com- 

 manding call has been variously transliterated. 

 Dr. Chapman thinks he says " Come right here, 

 come right here," in a peremptory manner, and 

 to Mr. Hoffman the syllables resemble pi-pce' 

 or pip, pi-pcc'. Captain Bendire compared the 

 call to that of the Wood Pewee, and says that the 

 syllables are liip-piii whc, while a gold miner in 

 the Cascade Mountains, emerging from the 

 bowels of the earth into the stnishine quite 

 naturally thought that the bird shouted to him. 

 " Three cheers ! " 



In the first analysis the food of the Olive-sided 



