The Brewster Flycatcher 
Range of E. t. brewsteri. —Western North America. Breeds from southern 
British Columbia south to southern California and northern Mexico, and east, centrally, 
to Ohio. Winters in Central America and south to Columbia. 
Distribution in California. —Breeds locally in the brushy riparian association 
of foothill streams and broader valleys, from the lower levels up well into Transition 
zone. Found sparingly in the deeper valleys of the high Sierras and on both slopes. 
Abundant during spring migrations, at the lower levels; common in late summer at 
the higher levels, both as a vertical and an autumnal return migrant. 
Authorities.—Baird (Empidonax pusillus) , Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. ix., 1858, 
p. 194 (Ft. Tejon); Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, p. 305, pi. 11, figs. 
28, 29 (eggs); Beal, U. S. Dept. Agric., Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 44, 1912, p. 60 (food); 
Ingersoll, Condor, vol. xv., 1913, p. 83 (destruction of nests); Hanna, Condor, vol. 
xx., 1918, p. 211 (parasitized by cowbird); Oberholser, Ohio Jour. Sci., Jan., 1918, 
p. 53 (nomencl.; the name brewsteri applied to the western subspecies). 
DISCRIMINATION is the constant effort of those who would 
study the Empidonaces, the Little Flycatchers. Comparing colors, 
Brewster’s gives an impression of brownness, where the Western is 
yellowish green, Hammond’s blackish, and Wright’s grayish dusky. 
These distinctions are not glaring, but they obtain roughly afield in a 
group where every floating mote of difference is welcomed. Brewster’s 
Flycatcher, moreover, is a lover of the half-open situations, bushy rather 
than timbered, of clearings, low thickets, and river-banks. Above all, 
it is wedded to the lesser willows, Salix flavescens, S. lasiolepis, S. sessili- 
folia, and the rest. Unlike its congeners, it- will follow a stream out 
into the desert, if only a few willows or cottonwoods will keep it company; 
and the willow stubs which border the Colorado River are as sure to hold 
these chaps as are the wastes tributary to the Santa Ana, San Gabriel, 
and the Santa Clara rivers. In like manner, Brewster’s Flycatchers 
will stoutly follow the lithe charmers to the heart of the Sierras, though 
not often to altitudes above 6000 or 7000 feet. In June, 1915, I found 
them nesting in the Yosemite Valley near Camp Ahwahne, in company 
with White-crowned Sparrows and Lincoln Sparrows; and in July, 1913, 
a pair nested in the Simpson Meadows, altitude 6000, on the Middle 
Fork of the Kings River, along with such “Boreal” species as Thick¬ 
billed Sparrow, Sierra Junco, and Townsend Solitaire. But here it had 
a willow hummock in a grassy bog exactly to its taste. The highest 
elevation at which I have ever found this species breeding is at Mammoth 
Camp, in southern Mono County, at an elevation of 8000 feet. 
Brewster’s Flycatcher is a tardy migrant, for it arrives in Los Angeles 
County not earlier than the 1st of May, and does not reach certain 
northern stations before June. When it does come, however, it wastes 
no time moping about, but takes prompt possession of everything in 
sight in the name of Hunger and the God of all little Tyrants. This 
