COI^TOPUS RICHAKDSONI. 537 



CONTOPUS RICIIAKUSONI.^ 

 Kicliai-dsoii's Pewof. 



Tyrannnla Hchardsonii, Swainson, Fauua Bor. Am., II, 1831, 140, pi. XLVi, lower 



figure. 

 Contopus riehardsonii, Baird, B. X. Am., 1858, 189; Cat. N. Am. B., 1859, No. 



138._CooPER, Orn. Cal., I, 1870, 325. 

 Contopus virens var. ricliardsonn, Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Ill, 1872, 179. — 



COUES, Key, 1872, 174 ; Check List, 1873, No. 255a.— B. B. & K., Hist. N. 



Am. B., II, 1874, 3G0, pi. XLiv, fig. 4.— Henshaw, 1875, 353. 

 Contopus {virens var. !) riehardsonii, CouES, Birds N.W., 1874, 247. 



Richardson's Pewee was met with in every wooded locahty, and was 

 no less common at an altitnde of 8,000 feet, in the Wahsatch Mountains, 

 than at Sacramento, but Httle above the sea-level. In all respects except 

 its notes and the character of its nest, this species is a counterpart of the 

 eastern Wood Pewee (C. virens), its appearance and manners being quite 

 the same. It seems, however, to be more crepuscular than the eastern 

 species, for while it remains quiet most of the day, no sooner does the sun 

 set than it begins to utter its weird, lisping notes, which increase in loud- 

 ness and frequency as the evening shades deepen. At Sacramento we fre- 

 quently heard these notes about our camp at all times of the night. This 

 common note of Richardson's Pewee is a harsh, abrupt lisping utterance, 

 more resembling the ordinary rasping note of the Night-Hawk (Chordcilcs 

 popetm) than any other we can compare it with, though it is of course 

 weaker, or in strength jH'Oportioned to the size of the bird. Being most 

 frequently heard during the close of day, when most other animals become 

 silent and Nature presents its most gloomy aspect, the voice of this bird 

 sounds lonely, or even weird. 



The nest of this species, as is well known, differs very remarkably from 

 that of C. virens, being almost invariably placed in the crotch between 

 nearly upright forks, like that of certain Empidonaces, as E. minimus and 

 E. ohscurus, instead of being saddled upon a horizontal branch, while its 

 structure is very different, the materials being chiefly plant-fibers and 



' With almost absolute similarity to G. virens, its eastern representative, in all 

 appreciable details of form, size, and color, this bird presents such radical diiierences 

 iu notes, accompanied by certain peculiarities of habits, that we ieel bound to consider 

 it a distinct species. 



