24 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA. [No. 4 



and were consequently extremely ragged and disreputable in appearance. 

 T did not secure enough specimens to admit of extended comparison, but 

 the few I have are absolutely indistinguishable from Southern Califor- 

 nia birds. 



Nuttallornis borealis (Swainson). Olive-sided Flycatcher. 



The Olive-sided Flycatcher occurs regularly in the Huachucas 

 during the migrations, but is never at all abundant; five or six being 

 about as many as I have seen in the whole course of a migration. It is 

 rather a late arrival, and the extreme dates at which I have noted the 

 species are from April 20th to May 28th. In the fall the first and only 

 one I saw was on August 30th. Though a bird of the highest altitudes 

 in the regions in which it breeds, these migrating birds never seemed 

 to ascend the mountains to any height, none being seen above 6000 feet. 



Contopus pertinax pallidiventris Chapman. Cones Flycatcher. 



During the summer months this flycatcher is one of the character- 

 istic birds of the pine regions of the Huachucas, where if not seen, it can 

 at least be heard almost everywhere. It is one of the first of the summer 

 residents to arrive, and one was heard calling as early as March 29th The 

 usual time of arrival is the first week in April, and during this month 

 they can be found generally distributed over all parts of the mountains ; 

 while I have taken specimens, evidently migrating birds, quite at the 

 base of the range, as latp as May 25th, though others were found breed- 

 ing at an earlier date. In its breeding, in fact in its habits in general, it 

 closely resembles the Olive-sided Flycatcher, but I have never found it 

 migrating out in the plains and valleys as that species quite generally 

 does. As with borealis the male bird is fond of getting in some elevated 

 position, usually the extremity of a dead limb at the top of some tall 

 pine or fir, and remaining there for hours, uttering at frequent intervals 

 its loud, characteristic call. In character and tone this call is quite 

 similar to that of borealis, but the rotes differ. The local name for the 

 species, derived from its cry, is Jose Maria (pronounced, Ho-say Maria, 

 with the second syllable of the last word drawn out and emphasized), 

 a far better translation of the sounds that is the case in many similar 

 instances. 



During the breeding season these birds are to a great extent re- 

 stricted to the higher parts of the mountains, being most abundant from 

 8000 to 10,000 feet ; though I have seen one or two nests as low as 7000 

 feet. In the choice of a nesting place they show a marked prefierence 

 for the conifers, the nest being usually built at a considerable distance 

 from the ground, on some limb affording a wide, uninterrupted outlook, 

 but there again no hard and fast rule can be laid down, as I have seen 

 nests built in maples in the bottom of a canyon, not twenty-five feet 

 above the ground, and nearly hidden by the luxuriant foliage. I have 

 seen birds beginning to build in the middle of May, and eggs can be 

 occasionally be found until at least the middle of July. On July 23, 1902, 

 I secured a young bird which had just left the nest but was as yet hardly 

 able to fiy, and two weeks later broods of young, attended by the parents 

 could be seen everywhere. After the young had left the nest, a general 

 movement toward a lower altitude began, and by the middle of August 

 young and old could be found quite commonly along the canyons, and in 

 the groves of live oaks at the mouths of the same. The young birds 

 collected differ from the adults in having the abdomen and lower tail 

 coverts and sometimes tlie center of the throat as well, bufify ochraceous. 



