May, 1909 
FROM FIELD AXD STUDY 
103 
its month. It spent the night in some cotton and a handkerchief arranged as a nest in a candy 
box lid. 
Early the next morning they were awakened by the buzzing of wings and found that the 
mother bird had found her young one and was investigating its condition and surroundings 
coming into their sleeping quarters to do so. 
On this day she fed it at intervals, perching on the edge of the box lid while doing so. On 
the next day they were holding it in their hands and feeding it honey when the mother 
arrived. She was quite puzzled as to what to do, but after some few seconds’ hesitation alighted 
on the tip of the fingers of the hand which held the youngster, and fed it. Afterward she buzzed 
close to it and pushed it, apparently trying to coax it to fly and being quite vexed because it 
would not try. 
The slightest movement was enough to startle the old bird, but she would return in a moment 
and alight on the hand which held the young one. The young people held it thus for a couple of 
hours during which time the scene described was repeated several times. 
While the mother bird was away gathering food, the youngster would buzz its wings trying 
to fly but would not make the endeavor when its mother was present. All three of the people 
took turns holding it and the mother alighted oh their hands without hesitation after her firs-t 
experience. 
They kept the bird for four days in the house. Its plumage, which had been very scant at 
first, rapidly spread. When found, there were only pinfeathers in the tail and on the neck, back 
and breast. At the end of four days the bare portions were pretty well covered and the bird 
could fly a few feet. They then put it out doors and for two days kept close track of it as it flew 
from one twig to another near by. The feathers seemed very nearly all developed by this time. 
It could fly well and was seen for several days in the vicinity with its mother. One of the 
astonishing features was the rapidity with which the feathers burst out. 
A weak squeak was its only note, uttered at short intervals, except when its mother arrived 
when it chipped quite energetically. 
Unfortuately, there was no camera present to record these interesting events, which at best 
can be poorly reported in words. — F. C. Willard, Tombstone , Arizona. 
The Derby Flycatcher (Pitangus derbianus) a permanent Resident Within our Bounda- 
ries. — Written of as “rather a rare summer visitor in the lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas” in 
Bailey’s Handbook of Birds of the Western United States, we must now alter this statement 
and call it a permanent resident, in moderate numbers. 
On January 5, 1909, while hunting some four miles up the river from Brownsville, and hav- 
ing entered a dense growth composed largely of the so-called Ebony ( Siderocarpos flexicaulis) 
my attention was directed to a water hole, of some forty feet diameter, by the calls of Green fays 
(Xanthoura luxuosa glancescens). Upon approaching, a great clatter commenced, which 1 
attributed to the Jays. Perceiving a motion in the brush at the edge of the hole, and without 
any clear view of a bird, I fired. The victim was a Derby Flycatcher, and it had been 
co-participant with the Jays in the great uproar. Later I discerned the more usual notes of 
another Derby, in the same brush, but owing to the density of the particular portion of the 
scrub in which this individual held forth, pursuit was impracticable. The water hole, about 
which these flycatchers and various other birds gathered, was garnished with many insect's, both 
dead and alive, which suggest its avian attractions. 
Two more of this species were secured on February 10, in the same locality, and likewise in 
dense scrub, where I was attracted to them by their harsh and persistent notes. However, the 
Derby Flycatcher keeps so well within growth of this character, both here and in Mexico, that 
many examples of it might occur in a single locality, and yet comparatively few be noted.— Aus- 
tin Paul Smith, Brownsville , Texas. 
Flicker Feathers. — Among the cnrios of the Pacific Coast Indians in the museum in Golden 
Gate Park, San Francisco, California, is an ornament in the shape of a thin flat belt, six or eight 
feet long — probably worn over the head — composed entirely, or nearly so, of the tail feathers 
(rectrices) of flickers (Colaptes). The feathers are so placed that the quills are toward the 
center, the butts overlapping each other, the ends of the feathers being evenly arranged toward 
the outside, all same side uppermost, and fastened together with fine twine. This ornament 
must represent a large number of birds and is unique under any circumstances. But one of the 
most interesting things about it is the fact that every once in a while — say from one to two feet 
apart— the rectrices of a cross-bred flicker ( cafer + auratus) appear. It seems as if the tails of 
the birds must have been added as they were killed, for the more or less golden qnills of the 
cross-bred birds appear in bunches of ten or twelve, making distinct breaks in the color scheme 
while if the feathers had been indiscriminately mixed before being fastened in the belt these 
golden shafts would hardly be noticeable. This ornament is locked in a glass case, lying topside 
uppermost, as it were, and I had no opportunity to examine the underside where the gilding of 
the feathers would have been much more distinct. —Joseph Mailliard, San Francisco 
California. 
