318 LIFE HISTORIES OP NOETH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The largest egg- measiu-es 17.78 by 13.72 millimetres, or 0.70 by 0.54 inch; the 

 smallest, 15.24 by 12.70 naillimetres, or 0.60 by 0.50 inch. 



The type specimen. No. 24112 (PI. 2, Fig. 32), from a set of four eggs from 

 Boulder County, Colorado, was taken by Mr. Denis Gale on June 27, 1890, and 

 presented to the Museum collection; it represents a spotted specimen. 



117. Empidonax wrightii Baied. 



WEIGHT'S FLYCATCHEE. 



Emi>iclonax wrif/htii Baird, Birds of J^orth America, 1858, 200 (iu text). Of. Brewster, 

 Auk, VI, April, 1889, 89. 



(B 146, 261, E 328, 391, U 469.) 



Geographical range: Western United States; nortli to Montana, Idaho, Oregon, 

 and probably Wasliington ; east to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and adjacent 

 ranges; south in winter to Lower California and southern Mexico. 



The breeding range of Wright's Flycatcher extends through the mountain- 

 ous portions of Arizona, New Mexico, and California, northward through the 

 mountains of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming to Montana, Oregon, 

 and probably Washington. Like the preceding species AVright's Flycatcher 

 retires to the higher mountain parks during the season of reproduction, and 

 rarely breeds below an altitude of 4,000 feet; in Colorado it has been found 

 nesting up to 10,000 feet. Its favorite resorts at this time are the shrubbery 

 near mountain brooks, the aspen and pine groves usually found at the borders 

 of mountain prairies, rather wet beaver meadows, and the edges of swamps. 

 In northeastern Arizona Mr. H. W. Henshaw found it among the oak openings 

 during the summer, and in the vicinity of Santa Fe, New Mexico, he met with 

 it on the barren piiion-clad hills, where no deciduous vegetation was found; but 

 such a summer habitat must be considered as rather an exceptional one. 



Wright's Flycatcher is a very common summer resident in the mountain 

 valleys and parks of the Cascade Eange, in southern Oregon, and I have found 

 many nests of this species at Fort Klamath, also in the Des Chutes River Valley 

 and along the tributaries of this stream. It arrives on its breeding grounds at 

 Fort Klamath about May 15, and nidification usually begins a month later. I 

 do not consider this species as noisy as the Little Flycatcher, which was nearly 

 as common, but its notes are very similar; in fact they are not easily distinguish- 

 able, but are given with less vigor than those of the former, while in its actions 

 it is fully as energetic and sprightly as any of the species of the genus 'Empidonax. 



Mr. R. S. Williams writes from Columbia Falls, Montana: "Wright's Fly- 

 catcher is very common here, being by far the most abundant Flycatcher 

 observed. The first arrival this spring was noted May 7, and the next day they 

 were abundant. They seem to be about equally distributed in all kinds of 

 timber, and their notes are more frequently heard all through the day than 

 those of any other bird." 



