262 
FLYCATCHERS 
cherry thickets in canyons or more commonly from orchards and 
villages, is pleasantly associated with a fluffy, white-breasted little 
figure flitting about among leafy branches, snapping its bill and 
shaking its wings and tail in its flycatching. Like most of its rela¬ 
tives it makes up for lack of song by a variety of pleasing little 
conversational notes and twitterings. 
468. Empidonax hammondi ( Xantus ). Hammond Flycatcher. 
Adults. — Upper parts grayish olive , grayer anteriorly ; wing bars whit¬ 
ish or yellowish ; outer tail feather more or 
less edged with whitish; throat grayish; breast 
olivaceous , almost as dark as back ; belly and 
under tail coverts yellowish ; width of bill at 
nostrils less than half the exposed culmen. 
Young: tinged with brown, wing bars yellowish brown. Male : length 
5.50-5.75, wing 2.60-2.80, tail 2.30-2.50, bill .53-.S9, bill from 
nostril .20-.29, width at base, .22-24, tarsus .60-.68. Female: 
length 5.25, wing 2.45-2.75, tail 2.15-2.40. 
Remarks. — Hammondi has the smallest and narrowest 
bill of any of the genus Empidonax except fulvifrons and f. 
pygmcea , and it differs from them by having a dark chest 
band. 
Distribution. — Breeds in Transition and Canadian zones j,. ^ 
of western North America east to the eastern slopes of the lg ‘ 
Rocky Mountains and adjoining ranges, and from Lesser Slave Lake and 
interior of Alaska south probably to mountains of Arizona and New Mex¬ 
ico ; migrates to Lower California and southern Mexico. 
Nest. — In willows, cottonwoods, or aspens, or on horizontal limbs of 
pine or fir, 2 to 50 feet from the ground; made of plant stems and fibers, 
bark, and down, sometimes lined with grass-tops, hair, feathers, scales of 
conifer buds, and hypnum moss. Eggs: usually 3 or 4, creamy white, 
generally unspotted, or if spotted, minutely so, with brown around the 
larger end. 
Food. — Insects, especially ants. 
In northern Idaho Dr. Merrill found hammondi more abundant 
than in Montana or Oregon, and as common among young cotton¬ 
woods and willows along rivers and near swamps as in dry woods 
among pines, its notes being heard almost everywhere. Mr. Daw¬ 
son gives its notes as a : brisk sewick, sewick, and at rarer intervals 
switch-oo, or swecehoo.’ 
469. Empidonax wrightii Baird. Wright Flycatcher. 
Similar to hammondi , but bill wider, plumage grayer above, whiter below, 
throat often whitish ; outer web of outer tail feather abruptly 
paler than inner web , usually whitish. Length: 5.75-6.40. 
Male: wing 2.70-2.95, tail 2.55-2.80, bill .62-69, bill from 
nostril .32-.3S, width at base .24-.27, tarsus .71-77. Female : 
wing 2.55-2.75, tail 2.50-2.65. 
Remarks. — The white outer tail feather and light breast 
distinguish wrightii from hammondi , for though hammondi 
often has a white edge to its tail feather its chest band is 
dark gray. 
Fig. 340. 
