TYRANNID^ — THE FLYCATCHERS. 349 



rocky gorges, and secluded banks of streams, as does S. fuscus, nor does it 

 inhabit forests, like other Flycatchers, 



Dr. Cooper regards this bird as mostly a winter visitor in the southern 

 and western parts of California, where he has seen none later than March. 

 In summer it is said to migrate to the great interior plains as far to the 

 north as latitude 60°. It arrives from the north at Los Angeles in Septem- 

 ber, and perhaps earlier in the northern part of the State, and possibly breed 

 there east of the Sierras. Mr. Allen found it common in Colorado Territory, 

 among the mountains. 



In the arid portions of the Great Basin this species was often seen by Mr. 

 Eidgway. In its natural state it preferred rocky shores of lakes or rivers, 

 or similar places in the canons of the mountains, where it attached its bulky 

 down-lined nests to the inside of small caves or recesses in the rocks, usu- 

 ally building them upou a small projecting shelf. Wherever man has erected 

 a building in those desert wastes, — as at the stage-stations along the road, 

 or in the mining towns, — it immediately assumed the familiarity of our 

 eastern Pewee, at once taking possession of any outbuilding or any aban- 

 doned dwelling. Its notes differ widely from those of the S. fuscus and 

 aS'. nigricans, the common one consisting of a wailing peer, varied by a tremu- 

 lous twitter, and more resembling certain tones of the Wood Pewees {Con- 

 topus virens and richardsoni), with others which occasionally call to mind 

 the Myiarclius cinerascens. 



This species has been observed as far to the east as Eacine, Wisconsin, 

 where it was taken by Dr. P. E. Hoy. The specimen was sent to Mr. Cas- 

 sin, and its identity fully established. Dr. Palmer found it breeding near 

 Fort Wingate, in Arizona, June 11, 1869, and Mr. Eidgway obtained its 

 nests and eggs at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, May 23, 1868. One of these 

 nests (No. 13,588) he describes as a nearly globular mass, more flattened on 

 top, 3.50 inches in depth by 4 00 in diameter, and composed chiefly of spiders' 

 webs, with which is mixed very fine vegetable fibres, of various descriptions. 

 This composition forms the bulk of the nest, and makes a closely matted 

 and tenacious, but very soft structure ; the neat but rather shallow cavity 

 is lined solely with the grayish-white down of wild ducks. The nest was 

 placed on a shelf inside a small cave on the shore of the island, at about 

 ten or twelve feet from the water. 



Their eggs are rounded at one end and pointed at the other, measure .82 

 of an inch in length by .65 in breadth. They are of a uniform chalky white, 

 and, so far as I am aware, entirely unspotted. 



