ORNITHOLOGIST 



AND 



.fil.nn per 

 AuiLum. 



OOLOGIST. 



JosKPH M. Wai)E, Editor and Publisher. 

 Established, March, 1875. 



Single Copy, 

 10 Cents. 



VOL. VII. 



BOSTON, MASS., NOVEMBER, 1882. 



No. 22. 



Black-Crested Flycatcher. 



Among the many interesting birds which 

 one may study in Southern Cahfornia, 

 there is none more strange or more inter 

 esting than the Phainopepla nitens. It 

 was my good fortune from July, 1879, 

 to July, 1881, to be situated in Ventm-a 

 County, California, where this Itird is mode 

 rately common, and where I had most ex- 

 cellent ojiportuuities of studying it in its 

 breeding grounds. I saw a young male in 

 October 1879. I was collecting Hjjarrows 

 and Towhees along a brush fence in the 

 Santa Clara Valley near Santa Paula, when 

 a strange, nervous bii'd alighted upon the 

 fence at some distance in front of me. I 

 saw at once that it was a new species to 

 mo, and ray first impulse was " to shoot it 

 on the spot," but noticing it to be feeding 

 upon passing insects and not likely to fly 

 far away very soon, I decided to watch its 

 movements for a time before attempting to 

 secure it. It would sit upon a twig for 

 onlj- a few moments, jerking its tail in a 

 very nervous manner and uttering a sad. 

 iinenilous note which suggested the idea 

 that it must be a bird lost from its fellows, 

 stopping now and then in its lamentations 

 to dart out excitedly and seize some pass- 

 ing insect. After watching it some time I 

 secured it, and to my delight I found I had 

 a specimen of the Black-crested Flycatcher 

 — that strange bird of which Dr. Coues 

 writes so interestingly in his ''Birds of 

 the Colorado Valley," and in connection 

 with which he speaks so touchingly of one 

 of the common, yet s<5rrowful, occurrences 

 of border life. It is not strange that the 



pathetic song of this bird of evil omen 

 touched every heart as they gathered 

 aroiuid the charred remains of a dear com- 

 rade, or that they went to bed early ; for 

 even the call note is full of sadness and 

 desolation, and the song is wonderfully so. 



My interest in the curious bird was now 

 fully arf)used and I determined to know 

 more of it if possible, but frequent search 

 in the valley failed to discover a second 

 specimen. But in May, 1880, while taking 

 a short drive ujj Santa Paula Canon, I had 

 the good fortune to come upon a flock of 

 some twelve or more flying about among 

 the elder and sumac bushes, feeding upon 

 certain insects which frequent such places. 

 But it was Sunday and I had no gun. 

 Must I leave them without getting a single 

 skin ? No, for just then my friend Idell 

 Guiberson, an enthusiastic young Nimrod 

 and lover of nature, came riding down the 

 canon on his return from a few days' camp 

 ing in the mountains. And he very kindly 

 consented to shoot a couple of the coveted 

 birds for me after we had ol)serve(l them 

 for some time. They were in fiill phunage, 

 and the pure white wing sjiot. which shows 

 only when flying, contrasted pleasingly 

 with the glossy -black body. And on near 

 approach the yellowish-red iris and erected 

 crest gave a somewhat angry, threatening 

 appearance to the really timid bird. 



Circumstances were such during the next 

 few weeks as to debar me from revisiting 

 this canon where I knew they could be 

 found : and it was not until July, when re- 

 turnuig from a camping-out trip to the Big 

 Trees and that wonderful gorge. — the Yo- 

 semite Valley, that I again saw this s))ecies. 



