NUTTING'S FLYCATCHEE. 269 



gg. Myiarchus cinerascens nuttingi (Ridgway). 



NUTTING'S FLYCATCHEE. 



Myiarchus nuttingi Eidgway, Proceedings U. S. National Museum, V", 1882, 394. 

 Myiarchus cinerascens nuttingi Allen, Bulletin American Museum Natural History, IV, 

 December, 1892, 346. 



(B 131, part; C 248, part; E 313, part; 375, part; U 454rt..) 



Geographical kangb: Arizona and southward through western Mexico; in winter 

 to Costa Eica, -Central America. 



Nutting's Flycatclier has only recently been added to our avifauna. Dr. 

 A. K. Fisher, while on a collecting- trip through Arizona, for the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, in the spring and summer of 1892, stopped a few 

 days at Tucson and visited Rillito Creek, on June 12, 1892, in company with 

 Mr. Plerbert Brown, who acted as guide. While driving about among the groves 

 of mesquite and giant cactus a Flycatcher was flushed from an old Wood- 

 pecker's hole in a giant, cactus. The bird was secured, as well as a set of four 

 fresh eggs. On comparing the specimen with the type in the United States 

 National Museum, it proved to be Myiarchus cinerascens nuttingi, a small southern 

 representative of Myiarchus cinerascens, not yet recorded from the United States. 



Subsequently Mr. J. Alden Loring took another female at Prescott, Arizona, 

 on June 22; and in the U. S. Department of Agriculture collection there is still 

 another specimen, taken by Mr. Vernon Bailey at Oracle, Arizona, June 15, 

 1889.1 



As yet little is known about the range and general habits of this sub- 

 species, but it would appear from the above that it is pretty generally distributed 

 over at least the southern half of this territory, and the most surprising thing is 

 that it has been overlooked so long. It probably differs but slightly in its food 

 and call notes from the other members of the genus Myiarchus, and its nesting 

 habits seem likewise to be similar. 



Its nest, which in construction resembles that of the preceding species, was 

 placed in an old Woodpecker's hole in a giant cactus, about 4 feet from the 

 ground, and contained four fresh eggs. These do not materially differ in 

 appearance from the eggs of the Ash-tliroated Flycatcher. They are elliptical 

 ovate in shape, and measure 2438 by 17.02, 24.13 by 16.76, 24.89 by 17.02, 

 and 23.88 by 17.53 millimeters, or 0.96 by 0.67, 0.95 by 0.66, 0.98 by 0.67, and 

 0.94 by 0.69 inch. 



The type specimen. No. 25194 (PI. 2, Fig. 14), is the last one whose meas- 

 urement is given, and was. taken as already stated. 



' See The Auk, Vol. IX, 1892, p. 394. 



