288 LIFE HISTOEIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



He says: " Contojms ^lertinax is a sparingly distributed summer resident iu the 

 pine-forested mountains of south central Mexico, between 8,000 and 12,000 feet 

 altitude. At Los Vigas, Vera Cruz, on June 14, 1893, a nest containing two 

 fresh eggs was found in a pine tree at an altitude of about 8,000 feet. The nest 

 was aboiit 15 feet from the ground, on the outer end of one of the lower 

 branches. It was placed upon a small fork of the main branch. The nest is 

 outwardly composed of grass tops, which are covered with fragments of moss 

 and lichens, and it is lined with the fine heads (seed tops) of a species of grass 

 growing all about under the pine trees of the vicinity. "The locality was on 

 a gentle slope at the northeast base of the Cofre de Perote, near Los Vigas, in a 

 thick growth of small pines. The parelit birds paid but little attention to the 

 nest, but were quite shy, so that some trouble was experienced in obtaining one 

 of them; each time, however, the birds returned to .the vicinity of the "nest after 

 a long detour through the woods. So far as I saw them, these birds are very 

 quiet during the breeding season." 



The nest, which is now before me, is a compact and neatly built structure, 

 and measures 4| inches in outer diameter by 2 inches in height. The inner cup 

 is 2^ inches wide by I5 inches deep. 



Coues's Flycatcher leaves its summer home in southern Arizona and New 

 Mexico- about October 1, and apparently none winter within our borders. The 

 eggs are ovate in shape; the shell is frail andwithout- luster, of a rich cream tint, 

 and is sparingly spotted, principally about the larger end of the eg^, with differ- 

 ent shades of chestnut, ferruginous, and lavender. They resemble very much 

 the eggs of the Olive-sided Flycatcher, but. average a trifle smaller, measuring 

 21.08 by 16.51 and 19.56 by 15.75 millimetres, or 0.83 by 65 and 0.77 by 0.62 

 inch, respectively. 



The type specimen. No. 26222 (PI. 2, Fig. 17), United States National 

 Museum collection, the smallest egg of the two, Avas taken by Mr. Nelson, as 

 already stated, on June 14, 1893, near Los Vigas, Vera Cruz, .Mexico. 



107. Contopus virens (Linnaeus). 



WOOD PEWEE. 



Muscicapa virens Linn^isus, Systema Nature, Ed. 12, I, 17C6, 327. 

 Contopus virens Gabanis, Journal fur OiiiitLologie, III, Nov., 1855, 479. 

 (B 139, G 255, R 320, G 382, U-461.) 



Geographical range: Eastern North America; north to the sonthern portions of 

 the Dominion of Ganada, from NeAv Brunswick to Manitoba; west to eastern North and 

 Soutli Dakota, eastern Nebraska, Kansas, the Indian Territory, and Texas; south in 

 winter tlu'ough eastern Mexico and Guatemala to Golombia and Ecuador, South America. 



The breeding range of the Wood Pewee, also locally known in South 

 Carolina as "Dead-limb bird," extends through the eastern United States noi-th 

 into the southern parts of the Dominion of Canada to about latitude 46° N., 

 west to western Manitoba, the eastern parts of North and South Dakota, 



