416 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Additional Literature.—Hausman, L. A., Auk, XLII, 320-326,1925 (voice).— 
Herrick, F. H., Home-Life of Wild Birds, 21-28, 1901.— Miller, O. T., Little 
Brothers of the Air, 1-33, 1892.— Pearson, T. G., Educational Leaflet 81, Nat. 
Assoc. Audubon Soc. 
ARKANSAS KINGBIRD: Tyrannus verticalis Say 
Plate 41 
Description. — Length: 8 to 9.5 inches, wing 4.7-5.2, tail 3.6-4. Tips of 
longest primaries gradually attenuated in male (much less in female). Adults: 
Foreparts mainly light ash-gray, fading to white on chin, crown with concealed 
orange-red patch (usually restricted in female), back grayish olive, tail black or 
blackish , in strong contrast to completely white web of outside feathers; wings dark 
brown, feathers edged with whitish, under wing and tail coverts like belly, canary 
yellow. Young: Crown without patch, wing-edgings brownish bufT, yellow of under- 
parts, paler. 
Comparisons. —The three Kingbirds can be easily distinguished, the black 
and white eastern one with the white-tipped tail, from the gray and yellow western 
forms, and the Arkansas from the Cassin by its lighter gray foreparts, less strongly 
contrasting white chin, less abruptly attenuated primaries and blacker tail, more 
sharply contrasting with the white of the outside feathers. (See pp. 414, 419.) 
Range/ —Breeds mainly in Sonoran Zones from southern British Columbia, 
southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, and southwestern Manitoba east to 
Minnesota, Kansas, and Texas south to Chihuahua and Lower California; winters 
from western Mexico to Guatemala. Recorded from Wisconsin and Maine. 
State Records. —If number of records is any criterion, then the Arkansas 
Flycatcher is the most abundant or at least the most conspicuous and best known 
member of the family in New Mexico. It breeds nearly throughout the State 
from the lowest valleys to about 6,000 feet, being reported from Mesilla (Merrill); 
Roswell (Bailey); [Carlsbad (1919); all over the eastern section of the State, and 
extremely common in the Pecos Valley, from north of Roswell south to the Texas 
line (May 27-June 22, 1924); west slope of the Sandias, 5,000 feet (1919, Ligon)]; 
and Shiprock (Gilman); Adobe Ranch in the Animas Valley at 5,100 feet (Goldman); 
Lordsburg and Deming (Bailey); [in Grant County very common and building 
May 6-10, 1920 (Ligon); taken at Silver City about 5,800 feet, May 13, 1917 
(Kellogg).1 Breeding to a little above 6,000 feet, it was common in the foothills 
of the Capitan Mountains (Bailey); at Rinconada (Surber); and up the Pecos to 
Ribera, where young in the nest were noted June 26, 1903 (Bailey); nested abund¬ 
antly from Carlsbad to Santa Rosa, June, 1913 (Ligon). 
During the fall migration it ranges somewhat higher, to Las Vegas (Mitchell); 
Gallup (Fisher); Rio Alamosa at 7,500 feet (Goldman); and Vermejo Park, 8,000 
feet (Howell). Fall migration begins by the middle of July and most of the birds 
have left the State by the end of August, though they were common near Koehler 
Junction to about September 15,1913 (Kahnbach); noted at State College, September 
21, 1914, and at Mesilla October 1, 1913 (Merrill). The last at Sierra Grande were 
seen August 20, 1903, but a few remained in Vermejo Park until September 21, 
1903 (Howell). They were seen near Taos Pueblo September 24, 1903 (Bailey); 
at the Ruins of Gran Quivera September 27, 1903 (Gaut); at Rio Alamosa September 
28-29, 1909, and a few as late as early October, 1909, at Fair View (Goldman). 
On the return in the spring they first appeared at Fort Webster, March 25 
(Henry); at Carlisle, April 8,1890 (Barrel!); at State College, April 13, 1915 (Merrill); 
