COUES'S FLYCATOHEE. 287 



possession of a large ai-ea, and allows no intrusion of their kind within the 

 limits. Having spent a few moments in one spot, the bird makes a hurried 

 dash, and in a few moments its voice can be just distinguished as it is sent 

 back from afar in answer to the mate near by. A short interval elapsing, it 

 will suddenly reappear from among the trees, and, with an exultant whistle, 

 settle firmly down on some perching place, giving short, nervous jerks of its 

 long tail and turning its head quickly here and there, every motion betraying 

 the nervous activity of its nature. These sudden erratic flights from point to 

 point are quite characteristic of the bird.' By the middle of July 1 found 

 the young well fledged and quite numerous. Thus the eggs are probably 

 deposited in the first part of June. By the latter part of September many 

 individuals had passed to the southward, but at Mount Grraham at this time 

 the species was still present. I noticed them on several occasions on the 

 outskirts of the flocks of Warblers and. Nuthatches, which were moving slowly 

 onward. They appeared to be migrating in their company, forming, as it 

 seemed to me, a very incongruous element in these sociable gatherings. Their 

 call notes at this time were given almost as incessantly as duiing the- summer." ^ 



Mr. F. Stepheiis writes me: "I halve taken this species in the mountains 

 north of Fort Bayard, New Mexico, and in the Chiricahua and Santa Rita 

 Mountains, in southern Arizona, in all parts of which it is a rare summer resi- 

 dent. The female of a pair taken June 27, 1880, in the Chiricahua Mountains, 

 was incubating." 



Mr.'W. E. D. Scott .also observed them in the Santa Catalina Mountains in 

 April, and Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, United States Army, in the Mogollon Range^ 

 Arizona, during the months of July and August, where a pair were seen feeding 

 their young on Baker's Butte. He says: "Its habits resemble those of the 

 smaller species of this genus rather than of the Olive-sided Flycatcher."^ 



The nest and eggs of Coues's Flycatcher were first described by Mr. Samuel 

 B. Ladd, West Chester, Pennsylvania, in "The Auk" (Vol. VIII, 1891, p. 315). 

 "The nest, placed on an oak limb 20 feet fi-om the grormd, is compact, and 

 reminds one of the nest of our Contopus virens, excepting in size. Outside diam- 

 eter, 5 inches by 2 inches high; inside diameter, 3 inches by 1 inch deep. The 

 body of the nest seems to consist of the web of some spider, intermingled with 

 the exuviae of some insect, fragments of insects, and vegetable matter, such as 

 staminate catkins of Quercus-emoryi, a pod of Hosackia, and some leaves of Quercus 

 emoryi and Quercus undulata. The interior of the nest is made up of grasses, 

 principally of two species of Poa, also some fragments of a Bontelona and a Stipa. 

 The eggs, three in number, were slightly incubated. The ground color is cream 

 bufi", spotted in a ring around the larger end with chestnut and lilac-gray. 

 Measurements: 63 by 0.86, 0:62 by 0.83, 0.61 by 0.83 inch; average, 0.62 by 

 0.84. Collected June 17', 1890." 



Thi-ough the kindness of Mr. E. W. Nelson I am enabled to figure an e^g 

 of this species and add the following information about their nesting habits. 



' United States Geographical Surveys, Vol. V, pp. 352-3. 

 ■iThe Auk, Vol. VII, 1890, p. 256. 



