314 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



This subspecies was first added to our avifauna by Dr. Elliott Coues, who ob- 

 tained it near Port Whipple, Arizona in May, 1865. Since then it has .been taken 

 several times in Western New Mexico and Southern Arizona, but is far from being 

 a common bird. Nests and eggs unknown. 



471. VERMILION FLYCATCHEB. Pyrocephalus ruMneus mexicanus (Scl.) 

 Geog. Dist. — Southern border of the United States (Southern Texas to Arizona), 

 south through Mexico to Guatemala. 



Alonjg the Rio Grande of Southern Texas and in Southern Arizona the beautiful 

 Vermilion Flycatcher is a common species. Mr. W. E. D. Scott notes it is a common 

 species about Riverside, Tucson, and Florence, Arizona. During the breeding sea- 

 son the male frequently utters a twittering song while poised in the air, in the man- 

 ner of the Sparrow Hawk; during the song it snaps its bill as if catching insects. 

 Thickets along water-courses are this bird's favorite resort. The nests are usually 

 placed in horizontal forks of ratana trees, often in mesquites, not more than six 

 feet from the ground; they are composed of small twigs and soft materials felted 

 together, and the rims covered with lichens; the cavity is shallow. A few horse or 

 cow hairs comprise the lining. Dr. Merrill states that they bear considerable re- 

 semblance to nests of the Wood Pewee in appearance and the manner in which they 

 are saddled to the limb. Mr. Brewster describes a nest taken by Mr. F. Stephens on 

 the 25th of April, at Tucson, Arizona, which lacks the exterior coating of lichens. 

 Others were found by Mr. Stephens of a similar construction. The usual number of 

 eggs is three; the ground-color is a rich creamy- white, with a ring of large brown 

 and lilac blotches at the larger end. Dr. Merrill gives the average size of fourteen 

 eggs as .73x.54. A set of three eggs in Mr. Norris' cabinet was taken in Cochise 

 county, Arizona, May 21, 1888. The nest was placed in a sycamore tree near a run- 

 ning stream. The eggs are pale creamy-buff, with bold spots and blotches of seal- 

 brown and lilac-gray, in a circle around the center of each egg. They measure, re- 

 spectively, .71X.53, .69x.53, .80x.53. Six other sets in the same cabinet show great 

 variation. 



473. BEARDLESS FLYCATCHER. Ornithion imherhe (Scl.) Geog. Dist.— 

 Valley of the Rio Grande in Texas, south into Eastern Mexico, Guatemala and Nica- 

 ragua. 



Mr. George B.Sennett took a specimen of this diminutive Flycatcher near Lomita 

 Ranch, Texas, April 24, 1879, thus adding a new species to our avifauna. 



472a. RIDGWAY'S FLYCATCHER. OrnitMon imberbe ridgwayi Brewst 

 Geog. Dist. — Southern Arizona, south in Mexico to Puebla and Jalisco. 



This comparatively new addition to our avifauna was first described by Mr. 

 William Brewster in the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club (Vol. VII, pp. 

 208, 209), from specimens secured by Mr. F. Stephens in the neighborhood of Tucson, 

 Arizona, in the spring of 1881. On May 28 he obtained a female and a young bird 

 which had just left the nest. In April, 1884, he also took another specimen near 

 Tucson. Other examples have since been taken, but it is not considered by any 

 means a common b^rd. 



[473.] SKYLARK. Alauda arvensis Linn. Geog. Dist. — Europe and portions 

 of Asia and Africa; accidental in the Bermudas and in Greenland. 



