1912] Swarth: Birds and Mammals from Vancouver Island 45 



species was replaced by the other was strikingly apparent in a 

 walk along the trail. 



The Hammond flycatchers remained almost altogether high up 

 in the fir trees, where they could be heard calling continuously, 

 but they were very difficult to see. In all respects their actions, 

 habits, and manner of occurrence were exactly like those of E. 

 (jriscus as observed in the mountains of southern California, and 

 many of the call-notes also seemed to me to be exactly the same. 

 They appeared to be quite regularly distributed throughout the 

 region where they were observed, and. in a walk along the trail, 

 pairs of the birds would be encountered at intervals of about 

 three hundred yards. A female secured on June 20 (no. 15759") 

 was evidently sitting on a full complement of eggs, judging from 

 her denuded abdomen, but I failed to find the nest. 



There were a few in the woods at the head of the Tahsis 

 Canal, Xootka Sound, and an adidt and two juvenals secured are 

 sufficient indication of their breeding at this point. As an old 

 bird was observed feeding the young ones secured, they were 

 probably not long out of the nest. A few were observed at tin 1 

 head of Central Lake, but none secured. 



I saw none at Errington when we arrived there. August 29, 

 but they appeared a few days later ; one was shot on September 3, 

 and shortly after they became fairly common. The last was taken 

 on September 20. 



The three species of Empidonax encountered on Vancouver 

 Island appear to occupy distinct areas during the breeding season. 

 Trailli occurs in the lowdands of the southern part of the island, 

 difficilis at high elevations — possibly of general distribution in the 

 north — while hammondi occupies an intermediate zone. Our 

 observations were not sufficient to demonstrate conclusively that 

 this is the case, but the evidence certainly points in that direc- 

 tion. The sharply defined ranges of hammondi and trailli as 

 observed at Beaver Creek, the replacement of both these species 

 by difficilis at the higher elevations visited, and the occurrence of 

 hammondi apparently as a migrant only in the lowlands around 

 Errington, are all corroborative of such a view. 



Twenty-nine specimens of Hammond flycatchers were secured 

 (nos. 15749-15777) : eighteen adults from Parksville, French 



