The Birds of El Paso County, Colorado 529 



and Colorado Springs (May 13 to June 6), and at several 

 points along the line of the Rock Island Railroad eastward. 

 Warren has noted one in Monument Valley Park. The earliest 

 dates of arrival are those of Allen and Brewster, who have 

 recorded two specimens taken May 4 and 9, respectively, dur- 

 ing their visit to Colorado Springs in 1882. 



The Least Flycatcher may be looked for among the scat- 

 tered cottonwoods that fringe the streams issuing from the 

 foothills, or which mark the occasional waterholes on the 

 plains eastward toward the Kansas state line. It has not been 

 found in the mountains and is not known to breed south of 

 Wyoming. A specimen taken by Aiken in the pine belt on 

 the Divide north of Peyton August 28, 1907. is the first record 

 of its capture at so high an altitude as 7,000 feet or among 

 conifers ; also the only autumnal record 



Empidonax hammondi. Hammond's Flycatcher. 



Summer resident; rare. Arrives in May. 



The eastern range of Hammond's Flycatcher meets the 

 western range of the Least Flycatcher along the eastern base 

 of the mountains, an(4 except in favored localities it is scarcely 

 more common. A specimen taken by Aiken May 20, 1908, at 

 Butte Station on Fountain Creek is the most eastern reported 

 in the County. The distance from the foothills is about 12 

 miles. Aiken met with it several times in the early seventies 

 along Turkey Creek within the foothills, but it was somewhat 

 more common on Beaver Creek, which runs through a narrow 

 valley between piiion clad hills in 'Fremont County just west 

 of our County line. Allen and Brewster took it in 1882. All 

 migrants pass further north or retire to higher elevations to 

 breed. 



Our opportunities for observation in the mountains have 

 not been extended enough to enable us to speak with much 

 assurance as to its nesting within the County, but we have no 



