26 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA. [No. 4 



diminish in numbers,- the last being seen May 22. In the spring I found 

 them in all parts of the mountains, but most abundantly below 6000 

 feet, and usually along the canyons, not far from water. I was rather 

 surprised when they re-appeared in August, not in the foothills and along 

 the canyons, as before, but up in the pines, none being seen below 9000 

 feet. The first was seen on August 26, and from that time on, though 

 not at all abundant, I found them in small numbers scattered through 

 the pines along the divide. 



Specimens of hammondi collected vary from very dark colored birds 

 at the one extreme, with the abdomen strongly tinged with yellow, and 

 in some cases with the breast, throat and even the back, strongly sufifused 

 with the same yellowish hue; to very grayish colored ones at the other, 

 with the yellow of the abdomen almost, and elsewhere entirely, ob- 

 literated. 



Empidonax wrighti Baird. Wright Flycatcher. 



A fairly common migrant but a shy unobtrusive bird, and conse- 

 quently easily overlooked. On my first visit to the mountains, in 1896, 

 I failed to find the species at all; and the next time, in 1902, I mistook 

 the birds for hammondi, which they closelv resemble, until the different 

 note (exactly the same in ivri^hti as in griseiis, with which I was fami- 

 liar) betrayed them. They arrive about the middle of April ; in 1902 I 

 shot one in the lowlands near the San Pedro River on April 17, but saw 

 none in the Huachucas until April 25, after which they were quite 

 abundant. In 1903 I secured the first on April 14 and the last. May 18. 

 They were most abundant below 5000 feet, particularly favoring the foot- 

 hill region covered with scrub oak, madrona, and manzanita bushes. I 

 also found them where the canyons opened out into the plains below, 

 but they were not entirely restricted to the lower parts of the mountains, 

 for on one occasion. May i, 1903, I secured two and saw several others 

 in the pines on the divide, about 9000 feet, altitude. Wherever I found 

 them, though, they were equally shy and difficult to get a shot at, and 

 when in the thick brush, which they particularly love to frec[uent, their 

 low, lisping note was heard far more often than the birds themselves 

 were seen. 



Empidonax griseus Brewster. Gray Flycatcher. . 



I found this species to be a common migrant in the Huachucas, 

 more abundant than its near relative wrighti, and generally frequenting 

 ground of a different character. Some specimens were taken along the 

 various washes, but the region where they were most abundant was in 

 the most barren of the foothill country ; rough boulder strewn hills with 

 but a scattering growth of scrubby live oaks. In such places I found 

 them fairly abundant, that is I have seen as many as twelve or fifteen in 

 the course of a morning's collecting ; but they never ventured above the 

 very entrance of the canyons, nor ascended the mountains at all. Though 

 this flycatcher probably winters in some parts of Arizona (I have speci- 

 mens taken at Tucson during February and March), and might be ex- 

 pected to breed in this region, it nevertheless occurs in the Huachucas 

 merely as a migrant ; though from the early date at which it reappears 

 in the fall, it probably breeds at no great distance to the northward. 

 The earliest noted was on April 2 ; they were most abundant about the 

 first of May ; and by the middle of May had all passed on. They ap- 

 peared again the first week in August ; one was secured August 6, i(;o2. 

 and soon after they were fairly abundant in the same localities as in the 



