306 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



great height from the ground. It is similar in construction to that of the Wood 

 Pewee's nest, being saddled on a horizontal limb or fixed in a fork. A nest before me, 

 taken in Windsor county, Vt., June 10, 1884, is a shallow structure made of twigs, 

 grasses, and bark strips, lined with soft grasses and moss; it is a very frail, clumsy 

 structure, compared to that of Contopus rirciis.' This was placed in a hemlock tree, 

 thirty feet from the ground, and contained four eggs, which is the usual number. 

 From three to five eggs are laid by this species, and May and June are the breeding 

 months. The eggs are creamy-white, spotted about the greater end with a distinct 

 confluent ring of chestnut-red and brown; there are also spots of purple and laven- 

 der, and on the whole the eggs very much resemble those of the Wood Pewee, but 

 are larger; sizes, .90x.65, .89x.65, .90x.62, .90x.67. These sizes are slightly larger than 

 most of those stated by writers. The average size given is about .82x.62 inches. Mr. 

 C. Earlow read a paper July 10, 1897, before the Cooper Ornithological Club describ- 

 ing a nest and a set of eggs of the Olive-sided Flycatcher taken by W. W. Price in El 

 Dorado county, Cal. The nest was situated in a fir tree seventy-one feet from the 

 ground. 



460. COUES'S FLYCATCHEE. Contopus pertinax Cab. Geog. Dist. — Moun- 

 tains of Southern and Central Arizona, south through Mexico and Guatemala. 



This Flycatcher was added to our avifauna by Dr. Elliott Coues, who took a 

 specimen near Fort Whipple, Arizona, August 20, 1864. It is generally distributed 

 throughout the southern half of Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, but is no- 

 where common. Breeds wlierever found. Like the Olive-sided Flycatcher woods 

 on the edge of an opening or along rocky ravines. The nest and eggs of this Fly- 

 catcher were first described by Mr. SamUel B. Ladd, of Westchester, Pa., in The Auk 

 (Vol. VIII, p. 315). They were collected June 17, 1890. It is as follows: "The nest, 

 placed on an oak limb 20 feet from the ground, is compact, and reminds one of the 

 nest of our Contopus virens, excepting in size. Outside diameter 5 inches by 2 inches 

 high; inside diameter 3 incTies 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, Qiiercns-emnryi, a pod of 

 Hosacka, and some leaves of Quercus emoryi and Quercws unulata. The interior of the 

 nest is made up of grasses, principally of two species of Poa, also some fragments of 

 a Bontelona and Stipa. The eggs, three in number, were slightly incubated. The 

 ground color is cream buff, spotted in a ring around the larger end with chestnut 

 lilac-gray. Measurements: ' 0.63x0.86, 0.82x0.61, 0.61x0.83 inch 0.62x0.84." Mr. 

 George F. Breninger, of Phcenix, Arizona:, makes note of the nesting of Coues's 

 Flycatcher in "The Osprey" for September, 1897, page 12, as follows: "I found the 

 Coues' Flycatcher quite a common bird in the Huachuca Mountains, but saw none in 

 the Santa Ritas. A nest was found on June 11, by watching the female. At first 

 both birds appeared rather indifferent about my presence, but I noticed that no time 

 was lost in driving Jays from a ]arge spruce tree. Patient watching revealed the 

 nest; it was built at the confluence of two limbs, resting in part on the main limb, 

 and so well hidden that it was located only by seeing the bird resume the duties of 

 Incubation. The nest is of the Wood Pewee type, but much larger; being composed, 

 outwardly, of grass stems coVered with lichens. The inside is lined entirely with 

 the ripe tips of, a species of grass (Stipa species?) growing in places near the nest. 

 It was situated thirty feet from the ground, and ten feet from the trunk of the tree. 

 In the nest were two eggs and a third one, after receiving some injury, was thrown 

 out of the nest, lodging upon the edge, where I found it. Incubation in the two eggs 



