The Ash-throated Flycatcher 
General Range. —Southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, south 
throughout western Mexico to Oaxaca, Tepic, and Chiapas, migrating in northern 
portion of range. 
Occurrence in California. —One record of two specimens, males, collected by 
Mrs. May Canfield at Bard, Imperial County, May 17, 1921. Range probably 
coextensive with the narrowly delimited groves of sahuaro cactus growing upon the 
west bank of the Colorado River. 
Authorities.—Dickey, Condor, vol. xxiv., 1922, p. 134 (Bard, Imperial Co.), 
May 17, 1921, 2 spec.); Swarth, Condor, vol. vii., 1905, p. 28 (s. Ariz.; nest and eggs, 
habits); Osgood, Auk, vol. xxiv., 1907, p. 219 (nomencl.). 
POORRRRITT grilp iirrr it'! To a birdman in Arizona that is as 
good as “hands up” from a road agent. We came to attention instantly; 
but when the bird saw our obedience, self-consciousness overwhelmed him 
and he fled incontinently. Indeed, modesty is the distinctive vice of 
this alleged magister —at least in May—and he will edge away through 
the creosote with a most irritating facility. No doubt June and the 
responsibilities of parenthood give him a temporary courage, for he will 
not allow his meeker kinsman, cinerascens, in the same sahuaro; and he 
has, beside his own chicks, all the interests of Elf Owls, Gilded Flickers, 
and vagrant Cactus Wrens to protect. That he is either superstitious 
or a coward at heart we know from the circumstance of his adding a 
cast-off snake-skin to the furnishings of his nest. One look at that 
terrifying emblem and the prowling “inemy,” whoever he may be, is 
supposed to fall over backward in a faint. If said enemy refuses to do 
so, it is, perhaps, a sign that the burglar alarm is shorted, or worn out, 
so that it will not crackle ominously. In an eastern orchard where 
snake-skins were, presumably, scarce, I once found a nest of the Crested 
Flycatcher, Myiarchus crinitus, whose eggs were protected by crumples 
of stiff tissue paper, the folds of which did not fail to crepitate most 
valiantly when pressed. 
No. 168 
Ash-throated Flycatcher 
A. 0. U. No. 454. Myiarchus cinerascens cinerascens (Lawrence). 
Description. — Adults: Above dull grayish brown changing to clear brown 
on crown; wings dusky brown, the middle and greater coverts tipped broadly, and 
the secondaries edged with pale buffy brown or dull whitish, the primaries edged, 
except towards tips, with cinnamon-rufous; tail darker than back, with paler grayish 
brown edgings, that of outermost rectrix sometimes nearly white; tail feathers, except 
central pair, chiefly cinnamon-rufous on inner webs; sides of head and neck gray 
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