The Western Wood Pewee 
also washed with yellow; on remaining underparts becoming yellowish white or pale 
greenish yellow; middle and greater coverts tipped with grayish, the greater more 
broadly; outer webs of tertials edged with grayish white, the anterior feathers, so 
marked, forming with the tips of greater coverts a noticeable bar. Bill blackish above, 
dusky (never light) below. Young birds have the middle and greater coverts tipped 
with buffy (forming two not inconspicuous bars); and some buffy edging on rump and 
upper tail-coverts. This species bears a curiously close resemblance to M. virens of 
the East, insomuch that it is not always possible to separate specimens in the cabinet; 
3 ? et the two are perfectly distinct in note and habit, and are not suspected of inter¬ 
gradation. Length of adult males 139.7-165.1 (5.50-6.50); wing 87 (3.43); tail 66 
(2.60); bill 13 (.51); tarsus 13.4 (.53). Females a little smaller. 
Recognition Marks. —Warbler to sparrow size; dark coloration (appearing 
blackish)—much darker and a little larger than any of the Empidonaces. Meezeer 
note of animated melancholy, distinctive. 
Nesting. — Nest: A handsome cup of grasses and plant-fibers, lined with fine 
grasses, or, more rarely, feathers, and saddled upon horizontal branch, usually a dead 
one, without attempt at concealment. The exterior is, however, invariably finished 
in gray, usually by copious use of cobwebs, by which, also, the entire structure is bound 
to branch. Eggs: 3 or 4; pale creamy white to ivory-yellow, spotted, rather finely, 
or with occasional blotches, in open wreath about larger end, with chocolate (rarely 
chestnut, russet, or even tawny olive) and vinaceous gray. Av. of 69 eggs in the 
M. C. O. coll.: 17.5 x 13.4 (.69 x .526); index 76; range 14.5-20.3 by 12.45-14.5 (.57- 
.80 by .49-.57). Season: May 10-July 10, according to altitude; one brood. 
General Range. —“Western North America and South America. Breeds from 
central Alaska (casual at Point Barrow), southern Mackenzie, southern Saskatchewan, 
and southern Manitoba, south to northern Lower California, Sonora, Chihuahua, 
Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas; migrates through Mexico and Central Amer¬ 
ica; winters in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia” (A. O. U. Com.). 
Distribution in California. —Common summer resident from the lowermost 
limits of Upper Sonoran to limit of trees in Boreal zone; of wide occurrence during 
migrations. 
Migrations. — Spring arrivals: Santa Barbara, Apr. 29, 1911; Apr. 8, 1913; 
Apr. 22, 1919; Santa Cruz Island, Apr. 18, 1915. Fall departures: Santa Barbara, 
Sept. 11, 1911; Sept. 11, 1915. 
Authorities.—Heermann ( Tyrannula virens), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., vol. 
ii., 1853, p. 262 (Calif.); Cones , Birds of the Northwest, 1874, p. 247 (syn., desc. habits, 
comparison with virens ); Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, p. 291, pi. 
11, figs. 20-22 (eggs); Ray, Auk, vol. xx., 1903, p. 184 (Sierra Nevada; habits, desc. 
nest, eggs); Beal, U. S. Dept. Agric., Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 44, 1912, p. 49 (food); Mail- 
Hard, J. W., Condor, vol. xxiii., 1921, p. 76 (Lake Tahoe; nesting habits). 
THE PREY of gentle melancholy and the heir to gloom is this 
Pewee of the West. The day, indeed, is garish. The leaves of the fra¬ 
grant cottonwoods glance and shimmer under an ardent sun; while the 
wavelets of the lake, tired of their morning romp, are sighing sleepily 
in the root-laced chambers of the overhanging shore. The vision of the 
distant hills is blurred by heat pulsations; the song of birds has ceased 
and the very caddis-flies are taking refuge from the glare. The sun is 
