110 BULLETIN 19 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



quality. Wlien a company of the birds is seen flitting idly about, they 

 strongly suggest a flock of giant butterflies. 



The males, particularly, often carry on fly catching activities from 

 elevated perches, sometimes by sallies in regular flycatcher fashion, 

 but frequently by hovering and fluttering about in the air in a seem- 

 ingly aimless and befuddled manner. It is often difficult to determine 

 whether these peculiar maneuvers represent the prosaic pursuit of 

 food or some odd form of play. It is noticeable that the hunting of 

 winged insects always is conducted at a considerable height and never 

 by low swoops over the ground as is often the case with flycatchers. 

 Mrs. Bailey (1896) further describes some of the habits and manner- 

 isms of the phainopepla : 



In feeding, the birds occasionally flew against a bunch of bei'ries, as Chicadees 

 do, clinging while they ate; and I once saw one hover before a bunch while 

 eating, as a Hummingbird whirrs under a flower. More frequently they lit 

 on a branch from which they could lean over and pick off the fruit at leisure. 

 I never actually saw them eat anything but peppers, but at one time when the 

 brush was full of millers, the birds seemed to be catching them ; and they some- 

 times made short sallies into the air as if for insects. They did this much as a 

 Kingbird does, flying up obliquely and going down the opposite side of the angle. 



Their flight was interesting. In leaving the pepper trees to go back to 

 their nesting ground, they uniformly rose obliquely high into the air — sometimes, 

 I should judge, as high as one hundred feet — and then flew on evenly, straight 

 to their destination, several pairs going so far that they would disappear up a 

 side canon, or, as black specks, would be lost in the fog down the valley. When 

 watching the flight of Phainopeplas, Mourning Doves often passed close beside 

 me, and I was struck by the contrast in motion. The Dove cut the air, swerving 

 to one side as it flashed by, and its free whirling flight served to emphasize the 

 calm, even rowing of the Phainopepla. Occasionally the birds flew in an unde- 

 cided way, still high and even, but changing their direction by sudden jerks. 

 Frequently, when nearing the nest tree, a male would close his wings and shoot 

 obliquely down, tilting his tail for a brake. One of them used to fly in at a 

 height of about ten feet, waver as he came near, as if slowing up, and then 

 after turning his head to look down and place the nest, tilt down in the usual 

 labored way, his tail pressing the air. Not until he was nearly through build- 

 ing did he discover that it was easier to slow up in time to fly down to the nest. 



According to John Cassin (1854), this species, described from 

 Mexico by Swainson in 1838, was first added to the known fauna of the 

 United States by Col. George A. McCall, inspector general in the 

 United States Army, while on a tour of duty in California in 1852. 

 It is, therefore, interesting to read Colonel McCall's own impressions 

 of the "black flycatcher," as given by Cassin : 



The first opportunity that I had for observing the manners of this bird, was 

 afforded me in 1852, while travelling from Valle-cita to El Chino, in California. 

 On that occasion, as I left the country bordering the desert, and began to ascend 

 the hills, my route followed the course of a mountain brook, whose clear waters 

 were at intervals shaded with gnarled and scrubby oaks. In approaching one 

 of these clnmps of trees, I remarked a number of dark-colored birds, which 



