TYRANT FLYCATCHERS: Family Tyrannidae [ 399 ] 



fication of this dull-colored species, we have based our discussions of the 

 group on specimens only. The Western Flycatcher is the yellowest fly- 

 catcher found in the State and can usually be distinguished in the field 

 from the larger and grayer Little Flycatcher with which it is associated 

 in western Oregon. West of the Cascades it is a fairly common bird, 

 more abundant along the coast where it frequents stream bottoms grown 

 up with willow and alder thickets. It arrives in May (earliest date, May 

 5, Benton County) and remains until August (latest date, September 9, 

 Tillamook County). 



Although we have collected flycatchers carefully throughout eastern 

 Oregon for many years, neither of us has taken a specimen of this species 

 in that part of the State. Bendire (1877, I &95 3 ) recorded seeing a number 

 at Camp Harney, May 8, 1876, and finding a nest with four young on 

 Anna Creek near Fort Klamath, July 6, 1881, and Vernon Bailey took a 

 specimen, together with a set of four eggs, at Drews Creek (Lake County), 

 June 17, 1897. These are the only eastern Oregon records available at 

 present. Bendire (1895 a) reported also that Dr. C. T. Cooke found several 

 nests and eggs near Salem. These and Bendire's Fort Klamath nest and 

 young constitute the earliest certain records of the species for the State. 



Although the nest is usually placed in a crotch of a small tree or bush, 

 the Western Flycatcher is not set in its ways and often builds in an 

 upturned root, on a rock ledge, or on the beams of some building. We 

 have records of a completed nest as early as May 12. and of nests with 

 fresh eggs as late as June 2.0. 



Western Wood Pewee: 



Myiochanes richardsoni richardsoni (Swainson) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adults: Upper parts dark grayish brown; under parts heavily 

 washed with dark gray; belly and under tail coverts whitish or pale yellowish; 

 wing at least six times as long as tarsus; tarsus longer than middle toe with claw; 

 exposed culmen much less than twice the width of bill at nostril. Young: with buffy 

 or brownish wing bars. Length: 6.10-6.75, wing 3.15-3.55, tail 1.50-1.95, exposed 

 culmen .44-. 51, width of bill at base .17-. 31, tarsus .49-. 56." (Bailey) Nest: A 

 neat structure of plant fiber, grasses, etc., saddled on a horizontal limb usually not 

 more than 30 or 40 feet above the ground. Eggs: i to 4, white, specked and blotched 

 in an irregular wreath of brown about the larger end. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from central Alaska, southern Mackenzie, Sas- 

 katchewan, and Manitoba south to Mexico. Winters in South America. In 

 Oregon: Common summer resident throughout timbered sections. 



THE MOURNFUL pee-ar of the Western Wood Pewee is a familiar sound in 

 the forested sections of the State, where the small dull-colored vocalist 

 may be found sitting quietly on a dead branch of some giant tree. In 

 fact, its mournful call is better known to most Oregonians than its dull 

 colors and rather retiring habits. The call note is given persistently 



