478 ITS GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 



that remarkable locality, the same familiar call and immedi- 

 ately started in search of the bird which produced it. It was 

 soon discovered, perched on the summit of a large grease-wood 

 bush, but at our approach immediately took wing, and, notwith- 

 standing every artifice and caution on our part, kept out of 

 gunshot range, although enticing us on by frequent halts, dur- 

 ing which it perched on the topmost branch of the most promi- 

 nent bushes. At each flight the peculiar rattling call referred to 

 was uttered, so that the bird so long sought was at last before 

 us. We were greatly surprised, however, to find that it was 

 not the species we had supposed, but one we had never seen 

 before." 



This region, in Western Nevada, may be about the northern 

 limit of dispersion oi this geographically restricted species, the 

 true home of the romantic nitens being in the warmer parts 

 of the Colorado Valley. It was secured by Mr. Ferdinand 

 Bischoff in Southern Nevada. We have accounts of its pres- 

 ence in various parts of California, and my knowledge of these 

 faunal areas leads me to infer the presence of the bird in 

 corresponding latitudes in Utah and Colorado, where advices 

 are still lacking. The species is undoubtedly migratory from 

 the northerly and more elevated localities, where it resides in 

 summer, as it certainly is from such a southern, though still 

 elevated, spot as Fort Whipple. Yet, as I ventured to say in 

 1866, it is doubtless a permanent resident in the southern por- 

 tions of Arizona, and is consequently found over the Mexican 

 border in winter. Dr. Heermann had already seen it at Fort 

 Yuma late in November, and Kennedy in February and March 

 at various points along his westward journey to the Great 

 Colorado ; and Henshaw latterly, in 1874, found it in Arizona 

 under circumstances warranting the belief that it is resident 

 over a considerable area in this Territory. For New Mexico, we 

 have the observations of Dr. T. C. Henry, as well as Dr. Ken- 

 nerly's. For California, Dr. Cooper's memoranda form an inter- 

 esting supplement to Heermann's original entries. According 

 to these, the shining birds are numerous on the Colorado, 

 especially in winter, and are to be found along the Mojave 

 Eiver in December. Many leave the immediate valley of the 

 river in April, in which month the late Captain Feilner found 

 the bird at Fort Crook, California. Dr. Cooper, like the rest, 

 attests the wildness of the bird, its trick of jutting the tail and 

 erecting the crest, like a Flycatcher, the pains a wounded one 



