TYIIANNIILE — THE FLYCATCHERS. 349 



rocky porj^es, and secluded banks of streams, as does S. fuscus, nor dues it 

 inhabit forests, like other Flycatchers 



Dr. Cooper regards tliis bird as mostly a winter visitor in the southern 

 and western parts of CalitVtrnia, where he has seen none later than March. 

 In summer it is said to mij^rate to the great interior plains as far to the 

 north as latitude 00°. It arrives from the north at Los Angeles in Sei)tem- 

 ber, and i)erhai)s earlier in the northern part of the State, and i)()S.silily breed 

 there east of the Sierr'is Mr. Allen found it common in Colorado Territory, 

 among the mountains. 



In the arid jmrtions of the Great Basin this si)ecies was often seen by Air. 

 llidgway. In its natural state it preferred rocky shores of lakes or rivers, 

 or similar places in the canons of the mountains, where it attached its bulky 

 down-lined nests to the inside of small caves or recesses in the rocks, usu- 

 ally building them upftn a small imtjecting shelf. Wherever man has erected 

 a building in those desert wastes, — as at the stage-stations along the road, 

 or in the mining towns, — it inunediately assumed the familiarity of our 

 eastern Pewee, at once taking jjossession of any outbuilding or any alnm- 

 doned dwelling. Its notes differ widely from those of the S. /usrnn and 

 »S^. nigricans, the common one consisting of a wailing jkci; varied by a tremu- 

 lous twitter, and more resembling certain tones of the AVood I'ewees (Con- 

 topxs vircm mid richardmni), with others which occasionally call to mind 

 the Myiarchti^ cincrascens. 



This species Ims been observed as far to the east as Racine, Wisconsin, 

 where it was taken l)y Dr. P. K. Hoy. The specimen was sent to Mr. Cas- 

 sin, and its identity fully established. Dr. Palmer found it breeding near 

 Port Wingate, in Arizona, June 11, 1869, and Mr. llidgway obtained its 

 nests and eggs at Pyramid Lake, Nevada, May 23, 18G8. One of these 

 nests (No. 1:5,588) he describes as a nearly globular mass, more flattened on 

 top, ^5.50 inches in depth by 4 00 in diameter, and conqiosed chiefly of spiders' 

 webs, with whi(ili is mixed very fine vegetable fibres, of various descriptions. 

 This composition forms the bulk of the nest, and makes a closely matted 

 and tenacious, but very soft structure ; the neat but rather shallow cavity 

 is lined solely with the grayish-white down of wild ducks. The nest was 

 placed on a shelf inside a small cave on the shore of the island, at about 

 ten or twelve feet from the water. 



Their eggs are rounded at one end and pointed at the other, measure .82 

 of an inch in length by .05 in breadth. They are of a uniform chalky white, 

 and, so far as I am aware, entirely unspotted. 



