38 
THE CONDOR 
I Vol. 'IV 
In the Summer Home of the Buff-breasted Flycatcher. 
R. D. Lusk, Redington, Ariz. 
H aving promised to write something 
of the nesting habits of the Buff- 
breasted Flycatcher {Empidonax 
fiilvifrons pyginceus) it occurs to 
me that so little has been said of 
their life history that I will 
not confine myself to their nesting 
habits. Tho’ the least among the genus 
Empidonax in size, they are by no 
means least in interest, and this is not 
merely owing to their rarit}^ either. 
Judging by the very few to be en- 
countered in their known breeding 
localities, they are indeed rare, tlie 
largest number of them that I have 
seen in any one season being not more 
than three or four pairs. Thej^ appear 
in their summer haunts in the mount- 
ains, which are .so far as I have found 
them, at altitudes of from 6,500 feet up 
to the summits, at about the time of the 
coming of the warblers, late in April or 
in early May. 
On April 20, ’99, I saw a single indi- 
vidual low down in the foothills of the 
Santa Rita Mountains and have little 
doubt he was bound for that range for 
the .summer. They begin nesting, ac- 
cording to the earliest record in my owm 
note book, June 3. From that date un- 
til about June 20 seems to be their nor- 
mal time for beginning work. Disturbed 
pairs will begin nesting up to Aug. i. 
Their eggs present .somewhat more 
variation in shape than those of others 
of this genus. Two of the few speci- 
mens that I have examined, taken from 
different sets, were sub-equal-ended, 
and the transverse diameter of nearly 
all is relatively great. The delicate, 
clear, creamy white color, unmarked, is 
uniform. I have been unable to keep 
track of any of the young after leaving 
the nest, as the}" are thereafter, .so far 
as separate identification is concerned, 
hopelessly lost in the big trees. 
They linger about their nesting local- 
ity until the warblers, vireos, Mexican 
Chickadees and others are feeding in 
flights of various mixtures wherever 
food is nio.st plentiful. Just when they 
leave their summer homes I have been 
unable to stay with them long enough 
to ascertain; whither they go I have 
seen no data from which to determine. 
I first made their intimate acquaint- 
ance in the Chiricahua Mts. in south- 
eastern Arizona in 1896. Early in June 
I saw a pair of them ju.st below my 
camp at Riggs Bros.’ saw-mill, on the 
we.sternly .sUjpe of the range, at about 
6,500 feet altitude. As there was no 
record of their nest and eggs being found 
it will readily be believed that I took 
an intense interest in that pair. I 
watched them in the early morning 
when birds are building, if building at 
all; watched them for hours after break- 
fast; watched them toward the evening 
when .so many birds, like the proverb- 
ial lazy man, who “works the be.st 
when the sun is in the west’’, do a little 
hurried building. But tho.se were all 
holidays to that precious pair. And 
beautiful days they were. The skies 
were Arizona’s; the temperature ideal. 
The canyon stream rippled softly be- 
neath the large sycamores upon which 
they stationed themselves much of the 
time; their little breasts shone buff in 
the bright sunlight; flies were plentiful 
and there was plenty of time for enjoy- 
ing themselves, and they improved it. 
Every now and then the soft pit, pit 
of the two, as they kept good account 
of each other’s whereabouts, was varied 
by the Chicky-wheiv of the male. ( I bor- 
row this from my assistant Hiram, who 
always designated him the “Chicky- 
whew bird”). Not far up the mountain 
side, among the top branches of .some 
large pines, a male Dendroka gracice 
frequently halted in his tour of inspec- 
tion of the bunches of needles, long 
enough to utter his rapid, ^’ivmcious 
.song, much like that of the house wren 
tho’ superior. Behind me, far up a 
pretty canyoncito, now and tlien the 
chiip of a .Stephen’s vireo ( I'irco h. stc- 
