THE SULPHUR-BELLIED FLYCATCHER. 257 



and perfection of plumage from the adult pair, were still the objects of their 

 solicitous care, and were dependent upon them for food. Indeed, their jiresence 

 might have remained unnoticed by me had I not been greeted, as I entered the . 

 mouth of one of the deep, narrow canyons intersecting the mountains in every 

 direction, by the shrill notes and angry cries of the old birds, who hovered in 

 the air at a short distance, or flew restlessly from tree to tree endeavoring to 

 distract my attention from the young, till, taking the alarm, they flew over into 

 an adjoining ravine, where soon after I found the whole family assembled, the 

 old birds having immediately rejoined their charges. The. following day Dr. 

 Rothrock, while out botanizing, saw what he supposed to be a second family of 

 six or seven of these birds, so that the occurrence of the species here is proba- 

 bly to be regarded as by no means accidental."^ 



Since then Lieut. Harry C. Benson, United States Army, and Dr. A. K. 

 Fisher have both taken this species among the oaks in some of the canyons near 

 Fort Huachuca, and it rmdoubtedly occurs regularly throughout the mountain 

 regions of southern Arizona during the breeding season. Mr. E. W. Nelson 

 found it not uncommon about Jalapa and Jico, in Vera Cruz, ^vliere they were 

 noted during June and July. They were found along hedges bordering the 

 roadsides and fields, and also among bushes on the itiore open parts of the 

 slopes of hills and canyons. In their general habits they closely resemble 

 Myiosetetes texensis. 



Mr. Richard D. Lusk has recently sent me the following notes on the nest- 

 ing of this species in southern Arizona, under date of October 14, 1894. He 

 writes: "After watching every pair of Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers that came 

 to my notice, all through the season, in the hope of discovering some actions 

 that looked like nesting, I had given it up as useless, when, on the morn- 

 ing of August 1, I saw one in the distance fly to a hole in the main stem 

 of a sycamore tree, about 40 feet from the ground. The bird flew first to an 

 outer branch of the tree and made a careful reconnoiter of the vicinity. I 

 waited and watched quietly until the programme was repeated twice, and then, 

 after going close to the tree and ascertaining the hole to be a natural knot hole, 

 came to the conclusion that the bird must be building, for there had been none 

 of the species in that vicinity a few days previous when I remained there for 

 some time hunting. Two weeks later I returned to the tree and succeeded in 

 reaching the hole, after some difficulty. It was about 4 inches in diameter, 

 straight in, scarcely extending below the margin of the entrance, so that the 

 bird, sitting on the eggs, could have easily looked out of the hole. Within was 

 a nest, which, though exceedingly simple in construction, was certainly unique 

 in material of composition, for there was not a vestige of anything in its struc- 

 ture except the stems of walnut leaves, with which the bottom of the hole was 

 hned for a depth of about half an inch. 



"Three years ago Mr. 0. C. Poling shot a specimen of this species of Fly- 

 catcher which had a fully developed e^g in its ovary, as late as the last of Jul}-, 



• 



1 Geographioal Surveys West of 100th Meridian, Vol. V, 1875, p. 347. 

 16896— No. 3 17 



