422 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Range. —Breeds from southern Kansas to southern Texas and southeastern 
New Mexico, casually from southwestern Missouri to western Louisiana; winters 
from southern Mexico to Panama. Accidental in Canada, and in a number of the 
United States. 
State Records. —The few records of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in New 
Mexico come from the southeastern part of the State. Its regular breeding range 
extends west in Texas to Tascosa, Lub¬ 
bock, and Pecos almost to the New Mexico 
line. One was seen at Carlsbad, August, 
1910 (Dearborn); but apparently the 
species occurred only as a straggler in New 
Mexico until June, 1912, when it appeared 
and proceeded to breed at Hobbs, close to 
the Texas line and about 45 miles north 
of the southeastern corner of New Mexico. 
After that its numbers increased until the 
summer of 1915, when it was fairly com¬ 
mon and ranged at least 10 miles into 
New Mexico. [In 1918 Ligon reported 
that it had been recorded as far north as 
Carlsbad and without a doubt nested 
about Malaga, a few miles south. On May 
31, 1919, at an old deserted ranch on the 
Staked Plains, about 55 miles northeast 
of Carlsbad and probably about 18 miles 
west of the Texas line he found four of the 
birds, and one of them came to a small 
peach tree with material for her half- 
finished nest. On June 2, 1919, he saw a 
pair 2 miles northeast of Carlsbad where 
they were completing a nest in one of a 
row of cottonwoods. On June 20, 1919, 
Charles Bliss saw one 8 miles northeast of 
Carlsbad, and on June 21, another on a 
wire fence on the Tatem road 12 miles north of Lovington.]—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest.— Generally 5 to 15 feet from the ground, preferably in mesquite but also 
other trees and thorny bushes, in isolated huisaches on the prairie, in oak motts, 
in trees about houses, and sometimes on telegraph poles and light towers in a city- 
made usually of fine rootlets and plant stems lined with plant fibers, thistle down' 
wool, and feathers, but sometimes with green twigs, Indian tobacco, gray moss,' 
cotton, sago, or seaweed. Eggs: Usually 5, white, boldly blotched with reddish 
and darker browns, and lilac shell spots. 
Food.— In 128 stomachs examined, 9G.12 per cent of the contents was animal 
food, practically all insects and spiders; and 3.88 per cent vegetable, chiefly small 
fruits and seeds. Of the animal food, less than 1 per cent belonged to useful families 
of insects, the rest being practically all harmful. Grasshoppers and crickets averaged 
46.07 per cent. As the Scissor-tail feeds more on the ground than most flycatchers, 
beetles made up 13.74 per cent, Including snout beetles, cotton boll weevils, and the 
12-spotted cucumber beetle injurious to many vegetables. Bees, wasps, and ants 
made 12.81 per cent; bugs, 10.17 per cent, among them stink bugs and squash 
bugs; caterpillars, and a few moths made 4.61 per cent, including the cotton leaf 
worm and cotton boll worm or corn worm. While its consumption of grasshoppers 
From Handbook of Western Birds 
Fig. 74. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 
