40 
THK CONDOR 
t Vol. IV 
tating liis call, as I had done often, he 
answered me from one of the ver}^ pines 
I was watching. Two or three times I 
made him repeat it, but his voice 
seemed low and sleepy now. He had 
come home to roost, or the next tree to 
it. It was too late to search l)ut I went 
back to camp feeling quite sure I had 
outwitted him. The next day I found 
the nest and a hard climb I had before 
I got above the cone upon which the 
nest was built and looked in upon the 
four daint}" creamy white eggs. The 
nest and its situation are shown in the 
illustration. 
Bui'f-brea.stkd Flycatcher’.s Nes 
They afterward built on the top of a 
horizontal limb of a large pine, sixteen 
feet out from the stem of the tree, in 
plain sight of the hawks and jays (Q'- 
aiiocitta s. inacrolopha) and for jay.s these 
mountains are the worst I have seen. 
Right out in jilain sight that daint\' 
little female sat all day long, a i)erpet- 
ual challenge, and many a brilliant 
fight she must have had in defense of 
her little home, for I saw some of them 
and for dash and spirit and effectiveness 
they could hardly be outdone. Kternal 
vigilance was certainly the price of 
success in her case. Xor did it take her 
mate long to come to the rescue at the 
least disturbance. 
Their soft pit referred to has surpri.s- 
ing carrying powers. It is sometimes 
audilde at a distance of 150 yards. And 
I know of none other of the flycatchers 
having a greater variety of notes than 
this obscure little bird. Every now and 
then the male, particular- 
ly, exhibited some trait or 
trick to challenge my in- 
terest and admiration. He 
is a ventriloquist. Almost 
invariably his voice seems 
to proceed from the lower 
branches of the tree, or 
from the vicinity of the 
ground beneath, when in 
fact the author sits on one 
of the topmost branches 
of a tall pine or fir, and 
being so small and less in- 
clined than other flycatch- 
ers to select an exposed 
dead branch, he is often 
hard to locate. 
In both 1899 and 1900, I 
found this same flycatcher 
breeding in a virgin forest 
of pines and firs, among 
the trees surrounding a 
little “park”, or treeless, 
open space, of which there 
are many in these mount- 
ains. It was about three 
miles above the location of 
Phoio bx R. D. /.usk.^ . , , *111 
the nest described above, 
r ON Lone. within a very short 
distance of the summit of the range, 
from which one can get a good glimpse 
of New Mexico, only a few miles dis- 
tant. But not one of the nests found in 
this upper location was built upon a 
limb, but all against the trunks of the 
trees, 20 to 35 feet from the ground, in 
two cases in tlie angle of a short dead 
