362 VERMILION FLYCATCHER. 



NAMES: Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Tyrannula Uariventris Bid. (184:3). Muscicapa Saviventris Brd. (184:8). Empidonax 



Baviventris Brd. (1848). 

 DESCRIPTION: Sexes, alike. "Above, dull olive-green, the wing-bands pale olive-yellowish; beneath, pale 



dull sulphur-yellow, shaded with olive across the breast." (Ridgway). 

 Length, 5.15 inches; wing, 2.83; tail, 2.45 inches. 



Western Flycatcher, Empidonax di&cilis Baird. This species inhabits the 

 western part of the country from the Plains to the Pacific, being especially abundant 

 and a familiar bird in California. Reminding the observer of the foregoing species in its 

 habits, mode of nesting, and coloration of eggs, it is a much more familiar species. 

 According to Mr. Emerson of Haywards, Cal., it nests in hollows in banks and along 

 creeks, in natural cavities of trees and among the roots of fallen ones. In tall Australian 

 gum trees {Eucalyptus) and in comers of rail-fences it has also been found nesting. The 

 structure is composed of rootlets, dead leaves, bits of grasses, etc., and the lining con- 

 sists of finer grasses and a few feathers. The eggs resemble those of the Yellow-bellied 

 Flycatcher closely, being creamy-white, finely spotted and speckled with cinnamon or 

 reddish-brown, these markings often forming a wreath around the larger end. 

 DESCRIPTION: Upper parts of this species, greenish-olive or greenish-gray; uriderneath, yellowish. 



Hammond's Flycatcher, Empidonax bammondii Baird, also called the Dirty Little 

 Flycatcher, is the western representative of the Least Flycatcher, occurring from the 

 Plains to the Pacific and thence northward to the Lesser Slave Lake and Alaska. 



Wright's Flycatcher, Empidonax wrightii Baird, inhabits the western United 

 States north to Oregon and Montana, south to southern Mexico. Dr. J. C. Men-ill 

 found its nest about Fort Klamath, Oregon. The nests, resembling those *of the Yellow 

 Warbler, were frequently built in young aspens. They were built against the main 

 trunk, while all the Warblers' were placed in upright branches, generally higher from 

 the ground. The Flycatcher's nest was constructed of light gray bark-strips and the 

 lining was sometimes a smooth-felted mass of fiir and horse hairs, in others feathers 

 were used and the nest was deeply cupped. The eggs were dull, buffy-white. 



The Gray Flycatcher, E. griseus Brewster, and the St. Lucas Flycatcher, 

 E. cineritius Brewster, inhabit Lower California, while the Buff-breasted Fly- 

 catcher, E. fulvifrons pygmseus Ridgw., has been observed in southern Arizona and 

 western New Mexico, south into western Texas. 



VERMILION FLYCATCHER, 



Pyrocepbalus rubineus mexicanus CouES. 



Plate XXXI. Fig. 4. 



^NE of the most striking birds of our southern border, from the lower Rio Grande 

 to southern Cahfomia, is the beautiful Vermilion Flycatcher, its brilliant 

 plumage and flaring crest being seen at quite a distance among the green foliage of the 

 trees and bushes. It is particularly abundant in southern and central Arizona, but has 



