140 



Tin: WILSON BULLETIN No. 61. 



100. *Sayornis plice'be. Phoebe. 



Regular but not very common. We have never been able to recog- 

 nize any decided migrationnl augmentation of their numbers and 

 likely the few that we have seen on most of our trips represent the 

 resident summer population. The greatest number we have ever 

 noted one day was eight, October 14, 1906. Usually we do not see 

 more than one or two, and these not every day, and usually 

 close to one vicinity, in the neighborhood of some of the farm build- 

 ings. They are likely members of "the same family, seen repeat- 

 edly. Our latest date is the above, October 14, which likely falls 

 within the season of their migrational movement along the Point. 



101. *Nuttal1ornis borcalis. Olive-sided Flycatcher. 



This is by no means a common flycatcher in this vicinity, nor was 

 it noted at the Point until the fall of 1906, when one, two, and one 

 were noted September 1, 2 and 3 respectively, and one taken the 2d. 

 On the last day of 'our return trip, September 22, during our drive 

 in, another was seen before we left the Point, on the topmost tip of a 

 dead tree. An attempt was made to collect it, but without success. 

 May 31, 1907, another was secured along the cross-road near camp 

 and the same fall six in all were noted or taken August 26 and 29. 



The Olive-sided is the most wary of our flycatchers. Sitting on the 

 tip-top of some dead tree, well out in the open, it can study the 

 ground for some distance about and allows nothing suspicious to ap- 

 proach too closely. Usually quiet and undemonstrative, it will once 

 in a while launch out after some passing insect and then return 

 again to the same perch. So situated, it presents the general appear- 

 ance of a dark colored kingbird ; but the dark blotches of the sides 

 stand out prominently in contrast with the light colored center breast 

 line and w r ill identify it without fail as soon as a moderately good 

 view is obtained. Under the wing, on each side of the back, and usu- 

 ally under the secondaries when the wing is folded are patches of 

 almost pure white downy plumage, with a peculiar silky sheen. At 

 times these are thrown over the folded wings forming flaring white 

 patches against the dull olive background of the rest of the body, 

 making a most distinctive and striking field mark. This species be- 

 comes very much attached to certain perches and can be found re- 

 peatedly day after day doing vidette duty on such favored stations. 

 There are two or three trees on the Point that were so occupied in the 

 fall of 1906 and again in 1907, and when one of the occupants was 

 shot it was only a little while before another was seen in the same 

 place. These were by no means the only perches of the kind in the 

 neighborhood. There were many others standing well out in the 

 open, and to human eyes just as suitable as those chosen, but which 

 we never saw occupied. When disturbed from one station they will 



