The Gray Flycatcher 
NEST IN GREASEWOOD 
wiser if we had had, because the doctors are still debating in their closets 
whether such a species as Empidonax griseus actually exists. In this 
exigency perhaps field testimony is more reliable. I can testify, then, 
that we found these birds everywhere in the sarcobatus belt. We took 
twelve sets of eggs with nests, besides observing several nests a-building. 
In our close, almost exclusive, association with these birds, we did not 
once hear the whew hit notes, which are distinctive of the male Wright 
Flycatcher, although this was the first sound we did hear upon returning 
to our base camp in the fir belt some 20 miles away. Again and again 
we observed the close association of male and female in the vicinity 
of their nest, a custom which is absolutely taboo in orthodox wrighti 
society. The notes and social customs of this desert-haunting group 
of Empidonaces, together with their nests of much more massive con¬ 
struction, serve to distinguish them from the established E. wrighti type, 
much more certainly than do any alleged differences in somatic characters. 
And now come two young scientists of most reputable standing 
who assert that they have found wrighti, hammondi, and griseus breeding 
together at the higher levels (say 10,000 or 11,000 feet) of the White 
Mountains, and that the young of wrighti and griseus are clearly dis¬ 
tinguishable. Here is work for the gods! I resign! 
Taken in Mono County 
Photo by the Author 
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