1912] Swarth: Birds and Mammals from Vancouver Island 43 



Three specimens were collected (nos. 15720-15731), a male 

 and two females, all adults. 



Myiochanes richardsoni richardsoni (Swainson) 

 Western Wood Pewee. 



Though fairly common at Beaver Creek and in the vicinity of 

 Alberni during the time we spent at these points, it was seen 

 nowhere else. Usually observed at the edge of clearings and 

 meadows, and in more open places in the woods. The two speci- 

 mens preserved (nos. 15732. 15733), adult male and female, arc 

 in no wise to be distinguished from others taken at more southern 

 points. 



Empidonax difficilis difficilis Baird 

 Western Flycatcher 



The range of the western flycatcher on Vancouver Island, as 

 observed by us, presents certain points of interest, compared 

 with its manner of occurrence farther south. In California 

 difficilis is found in summer in high Upper Sonoran Zone and 

 the lower part of Transition, a lower faunal area than that 

 occupied by the wrighti-griseus-hammondi group of flycatchers. 

 On Vancouver Island these conditions appear to be reversed. In 

 midsummer difficilis was absent from the lowlands, where ham- 

 mondi was breeding in some numbers, while we found it in the 

 only high mountain locality we visited during the nesting season 

 — a place where hammoitdi was not observed. 



Specimens of E. difficilis, evidently migrants, were taken at 

 the Little Qualicum River and at French Creek, at various times 

 from May 8 to 18. At Beaver Creek, in June, I looked for it 

 carefully, but without success, and the call-note of the bird is 

 sufficiently loud and distinct to render it probable that it would 

 have been noticed. At the Golden Eagle Basin, altitude 2200 

 feet, and on the surrounding mountains, it was quite common in 

 July. It was a hard matter to get sight of the birds in the dense 

 woods in that locality, but they could be heard calling incessantly. 



A few seen at the head of the Tahsis Canal during the last 

 week in July were probably individuals that had already begun to 

 move from their breeding grounds, as were several others secured 

 along the beach at Friendly Cove, the first week in August. 



