264 FLYCATCHERS 



fine straws, and rootlets, lined with fine fibers. Eggs : 3 or 4, oval, buff 

 or dull white. 



Mr. R. D. Lusk, who discovered the nest of the buff-breasted in 

 the Chiricahua Mountains, found the bird well named, the bright 

 Arizona sunlight bringing out the buff of its breast. He says that 

 the soft pit, pit', of a pair he was watching was varied by a great 

 number of other notes, among them the chicky-whew of the male. 



GENUS PYROCEPHALUS. 



471. Pyrocephalus rubineus mexicanus (ScL). VERMILION 

 FLYCATCHER. 



Head of male with full rounded crest ; bill slender, narrow at base much 

 as in Sayornis ; tail nearly even, of broad feathers ; tarsus scarcely longer 

 than middle toe with claw. Adult male : erectile crown and under parts 

 brilliant scarlet ; upper parts grayish brown, darker on wings and tail. 

 Adult female : upper parts brownish gray ; under parts whitish, breast 

 streaked with gray ; belly tinged with yellow, salmon, or red. Immature 

 :nale : like adult female, but with red appearing in crown and on breast. 

 Young : upper parts brownish gray, feathers edged with whitish ; under 

 parts whitish, streaked across breast, without reddish tinge on belly. A 

 rare melanistic phase of plumage is uniform dark brown tinged in male 

 with wine purple on crown and lower parts. Length : 5.50-6.25, wing 3.20- 

 3.40, tail 2.60-2.80. 



Distribution. Breeds in Lower Sonoran and Tropical zones from south- 

 western Utah through southern New Mexico, Arizona, southwestern Texas, 

 southern California, and Lower California to Central America : accidental 

 in Florida. 



Nest. Frail and flimsy, made of short twigs, cocoons, down, plant 

 tops and fiber, lined with feathers, wool, hair, fur, or down, saddled on a 

 horizontal fork 6 to 50 feet from the ground in mesquite, palo verde, cot- 

 tonwood, oak, and rarely willow. Eggs : 2 or 3, cream or butf , marked most 

 heavily about the larger end with bold irregular blotches and spots of 

 brown and purple. 



Food. Insects, including grasshoppers and small beetles. 



Of all the rare Mexican birds seen in southern Arizona and Texas 

 the vermilion flycatcher is the gem, his brilliant scarlet body glow- 

 ing red even in the dim twilight. 



In an 'oak mott' of southern Texas, where we found jackdaws 

 and scissor-tail flycatchers, the little Pyrocephalus was at home the 

 last of April, so he doubtless nested there too. One of his favorite 

 perches was a dead oak twig close to the ground, and in making his 

 sallies for insects he swept out over the flower-covered field we were 

 trying to photograph, his image in the camera more beautiful than 

 the flowers themselves. 



When flycatching he often hovered over the grass in the regula- 

 tion flycatcher way, but besides he had a unique nuptial performance 

 of his own. When high in the air he would puff out the red feath- 

 ers of his breast and hold himself up, twittering volubly as long as 



