EMPIDONAX OKSCURUS. 541 



EMriDONAX OBSCUEUS. 

 Wright's Flycalcher. 



{Yet' -to-gish of tlie Paiutes ; Pish' -e-wah' -e-te-tse of the Shoshoues.) 



? Tyrannula obsetira, Swainson, Synop. Mex. Birds, Philos. Mag., I, 1827, 367. 

 Empidonax obscurus, Baird, Birds N. Am., 1858, 200; Cat. N. Am. B., 1859, No. 



146.— Cooper, Orn. Cal., I, 1870, 320.— CouES, Key, 1872, 17G; Check List, 



1873, No. 201 ; Birds N.W., 1874, 258.— B. B. & E., Hist. N. Am. B., II, 1874, 



381, pi. XLiv, fig. 6.— Henshaw, 1875, 360. 

 Empidonax icrightii, Baird, Birds N. Am., 1858, 200 (in text). [Name proposed in 



case Swainson's T. ohscura should prove a diti'erent species.] 



This Empidonax is as characteristic of the mountains as E. pusillus is 

 of the lower valleys. It inhabits both the aspen groves and copses of the 

 higher canons and the mahogany woods of the middle slopes, in which 

 places it is sometimes one of the most numerous of the smaller birds. It 

 is probably not entirely restricted to these elevated regions during the 

 breeding-season, however, since it was common in May among the willow 

 thickets in the lower Truckee Valley, while the first individual of the sea- 

 son was observed in a cedar and pinon woods on the low hills near Carson 

 City, on the 21st of April. In September we found it in the lower canons 

 of the West Humboldt Mountains, where, as in other ranges, the summer 

 fauna assimilated that of the river-valleys rather than that of the higher 

 canons. It was equally conmion on both sides of the Great Basin, the 

 only districts where it was entirely absent being those where the ranges 

 were destitute of water and vegetation. It was more abundant in the asj)en 

 copses of the high canons of the lofty Toyabe range, near Austin, tlian 

 anywhere else, but it was quite plentiful in similar localities on the Wah- 

 satch and Uintah Mountains. 



The habits and manners of this species much resendjle those of others 

 of the genus, while in the location and structure of its nest, and the color 

 of its eggs, it resembles very closely E. hammondl and E. minimus. The 

 notes, however, are decidedly distinctive, and but little like those of its 

 congeners. Tlie ordinary utterance is an exceedingly liquid whlf, but when 

 the nest is disturbed, as well as on some other occasions, a plaintive siveer 

 is uttered, which much resembles the call-note of Chrysomltrls pin us, but is 



