PARROTS, KINGFISHERS, AND FLYCATCHERS 



825 



tail, and rarely may call plaintively. This 

 is Say's phoebe (Color Plate VII). 



Often the solitude of its haunts has 

 seemed to me impressed on the bird both 

 in its plain coloration and in its tendency to 

 slip away aloofly until its haunts were once 

 more undisturbed. In contrast to this habit, 

 these birds may come at times to nest under 

 porches or over busy doorways as non- 

 chalantly as the phoebe of the East. 



The nest, placed under a bridge, against 

 a building, in a cave, tunnel, or against the 

 side of an arroyo, is made of vegetable 

 fibers and hair, held together with spider- 

 webs. It holds four or five white eggs, 

 sometimes with a few flecks of brown. 



Say's phoebe {Sayornis saya saya) is 

 found from central Alaska to southern 

 California and central Kansas. 



Black Phoebe 



(Sayornis nigricans) 



With its twitching tail and wing tips and 

 its alert air, to eastern bird lovers the black 

 phoebe is at once suggestive of the well- 

 known bird from home (Plate VII). 



In California I have found black phoebes 

 about bridges and along irrigation ditches, 

 as well as in city parks and about ranch- 

 houses. Where there is water and shrub- 

 bery they may come into city yards. Like 

 the eastern phoebe they are hardy and may 

 remain through the winter in sheltered lo- 

 calities even when frosts are severe. 



In spring the male rises with tremulous 

 wings forty or fifty feet in the air to sing, 

 an effort more praiseworthy for its sin- 

 cerity than for its music. 



A little later there will be a nest made 

 of pellets of mud, mixed with fine fibers, 

 lined with wool and feathers, placed un- 

 der the eaves of a building, against a bank, 

 or at the mouth of an abandoned mine tun- 

 nel. This holds from three to six white 

 eggs, sometimes plain and sometimes 

 slightly dotted with reddish brown. In- 

 variably the nest is located near water. 



The black phoebe (Sayornis nigricans 

 nigricans) is found from southwestern Ore- 

 gon and southern Utah to southern Cali- 

 fornia and Chiapas in Mexico. 



Eastern Phoebe 



(Sayornis phoebe) 

 When I was a small boy the "pewee" that 

 nested under the bridge was one of the first 

 birds that I came to know. Later I duti- 

 fully learned to call it the phoebe in ac- 



cordance with the dictum of my first bird 

 book (Color Plate VII). 



But listening long and carefully to the 

 constantly repeated call from which the 

 bird takes its name, I never was entirely 

 sure that the nickname was not the better 

 imitation of its note. 



In spring the phoebe comes to the bor- 

 ders of little watercourses soon after the 

 ice disappears, and on sunny days calls 

 cheerfully as with twitching tail it watches 

 for dancing gnats and other early insects. 

 During cold storms it retires to willows and 

 other shelter, but comes into the open 

 again as the weather moderates. 



It is among the earliest of our smaller 

 birds to nest, making a bulky cup of moss 

 and other vegetable fibers mixed with mud, 

 with a lining of soft materials. This is 

 placed under a porch, against a rock ledge, 

 or in the erect root base of a fallen tree. 

 The three to six eggs are white, rarely with 

 a few small spots of brown. The birds are 

 tame and often nest above a doorway. 



During the nesting season the phoebe 

 sometimes rises in the air to sing excitedly 

 for a minute or two. Such a sky dance is 

 usually seen in morning and evening. 



This species is found from Mackenzie 

 and Nova Scotia to eastern New INIexico 

 and Georgia. In winter it ranges from Vir- 

 ginia south to the Gulf States and Mexico. 



Beardless Flycatcher 



(Camptostoma imbcrbe) 



In a family of birds of fairly orthodox 

 habits, so far as North America is con- 

 cerned, the beardless flycatcher is truly an 

 anomaly (Color Plate VIII). 



First, it lacks the long bristles about the 

 base of the bill that assist the ordinary fly- 

 catchers in capturing prey. Also, it hops 

 about among the smaller twigs of the trees 

 and bushes that it frequents, sometimes ac- 

 tively like a warbler and sometimes slowly 

 and deliberately like a vireo. 



Add to this a cheerful, twittering song 

 and there is complete a picture of one of 

 the most curious of the smaller species of 

 its family. 



This tiny flycatcher often ranges in little 

 flocks that travel rather swiftly through 

 the trees, or move more quietly through the 

 tops of bushes. The nest is a ball of fibers 

 placed at the base of a palm leaf, often near 

 the ground. Two eggs are recorded as a 

 set; they are white in color, spotted with 

 brown in a circle about the larger end. 



