384 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



white on the outer web of the external tail-feather, which is only a little 

 paler brown than elsewhere. The abdomen is much more distinctly yel- 

 lowish. 



Habits. Tiiis species was first discovered in the vicinity of Fort Tejon, 

 Cal., by Mr. Xantus, in 1858, and described by him in the Proceedings 

 of the Philadelphia Academy. It has since been taken in other parts of 

 California and Mexico. Sumichrast found it in the Department of Vera 

 Cruz; and Dr. Coues has taken it in Arizona, where he regarded it as a 

 rather rare summer resident, arriving late in April and remaining until tlie 

 third week in October. 



Dr. Cooper obtained a single specimen of this species at Fort Mohave, 

 May 20. It closely resembled E. ohscums in its habits at that time, and 

 he mistook it for that species. He afterwards met with others, as supposed, 

 of these birds, on Catalina Island, in June. They kept in low trees, and 

 uttered a few faint lisping notes. The first of this species arrived at Santa 

 Cruz, March 13, and they were numerous during the summer, disappearing 

 .in September. April 27, Dr. Cooper found tlie first nest. It was built on 

 the horizontal branch of a negundo-tree, about eighteen feet from the 

 ground. He found four others afterwards, from four to ten feet high, either 

 on horizontal branches or on forks of small trees. They contained three or 

 four eggs eacli, or young. The last one with eggs was found as late as 

 June 29, probably a second nest of a pair that had been robbed. These 

 nests were all thick walled, composed externally of dry mosses and downy 

 buds, with a few strips of bark and leaves, and slender woody fibres, 

 and often with a few hairs or feathers lining the inside. Externally the 

 nests were about four inches wide and two and a half high. The cavity 

 was two inches wide and one and a half deep. The eggs were white with 

 brown blotches and specks near the larger end, disposed mostly in a circle. 

 They measured .68 by .52 of an inch. 



These birds, he further states, frequented only the darkest groves along 

 the river, and had a very few simple call-notes of a monotonous charac- 

 ter. They were so very shy that he could not get near enough to de- 

 termine the species, which in all probability was not this species, but the 

 E. pusillns. 



The E. hammondi was met with by Mr. Eidgway only in the East Hum- 

 boldt Mountains, where, in September, it was found in the thickest groves 

 of tall aspens. It seemed to be confined to these localities, and was much 

 more secluded than the E. obscurus. Its common note was a soft pit. 



A number of nests and eggs sent, with the parent birds, from Lesser Slave 

 Lake, by Mr. Strachan Jones, show that its eggs are unspotted creamy- 

 white, like those of E. minimus and E. obscurus. Indeed, a number of nests 

 and eggs of the former of these two species, also accompanied by the parent 

 birds, could not be distinguished, except by their apparently just appreciably 

 larger size, on the average. 



