384 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



wliito on the outer web cf tlie external tail-feather, vliich is only a little 

 jiiiler blown tliivn elsewhere. The abdomen is much more distinctly yel- 

 lowish. 



ILvitiTs. This species was first discovered in the vicinity of Fort Tejon, 

 Cal., by Mr. Xiiiitus, in 1858, and described by him in the I'rocr xiings 

 of the riiiladeljihia Academy. It has since been taken in other parts of 

 California and ^[e.xico. Sumichrast found it in the Department of Vera 

 Cruz; and J)r. Coues has taken it in Arizona, where he regarded it as a 

 ratlier rare summer resident, arriving late in April and remaining until tlie 

 third week iu October. 



1 )r. ('ooper obtained a single specimen of this species at Fort Mohave, 

 May 20. It closely resembled E. ohsrimis in its habits at that time, and 

 he mistook it for that species. He afterwards met with others, as supposed, 

 of these birds, on Catalina Island, iu June. They kei)t in low trees, and 

 uttered a few faint lisping notes. Tlie first of this species arrived at Santa 

 Cruz, March 13, and they were numerous during the summer, disapjiearing 

 in September. April 27, iJr. Cooper found the first nest. It was built on 

 the horizontal branch of a negundo-tree, about eighteen feet from the 

 ground, lie found i'our others afterwards, from four to ten feet high, either 

 on horizontal branches or on forks of small trees. They contained three or 

 four eggs each, or young. The last one with eggs was found as late as 

 June 29, probably a second nest of a pair that had been robbed. These 

 nests were all thick walled, composed externally of dry mosses and downy 

 buds, witli a few strips of bark and leaves, and slender woody fibres, 

 and often with a few hairs or feathers lining the inside. Externally the 

 nests Avere about four inches wide and two and a half high. The cavity 

 was two inches wide and one and a half deep. The eggs were white with 

 brov.'n blotches and specks near the larger end, disjiosed mostly in a circle. 

 Tiiey measured .68 by .52 of an inch. 



These birds, he further states, fre(juented only the darkest groves along 

 the river, and had a very i'ew simple call-notes of a monotonous charac- 

 ter. They were so very shy that he could not get near enough to de- 

 termine the species, which in all probability was not this species, but the 

 E. pysil/iis. 



Tiie E. hnmmondi was met with by Mr. Ridgway only in the East Hum- 

 boldt ]\Iountains, where, in September, it was found in the thickest groves 

 of tall aspens. It seemed to be confined to these localities, and was much 

 more secluded than the E. oh/icurus. Its common note was a soft pit. 



A number of nests and eggs sent, witli the parent birds, froin Lesser Slave 

 Lake, by Mr. Strachan Jones, show that its eggs are unspotted creamy- 

 white, like those of E. minim-us and E. ohsrurus. Indeed, a number of nests 

 and eggs of tlie former of these two species, also accompanied by the parent 

 l)irds, could not be distinguished, except by their apparently just appreciably 

 larger size, on the average. 



