FLYCATCHERS: SAY PHOEBE 
431 
In the southern part, they stay much later and were still common at Las Cruces in 
1909, even to November 28 (Goldman). 
In winter the species has once stayed at Fort Thorn (Henry); it is a regular 
winter resident at Mesilla (Merrill); and was fairly common at Silver City the 
winter of 1885-86 (Marsh). [On the Rio Grande Bird Reserve (Elephant Butte), 
it was noted November 23 to December 9, 1916, and on the Carlsbad Bird Reserve 
was rather common in December, 1916 (Willett).] It occasionally winters still 
farther north, since it was noted at Albuquerque January 29, 1900 (Birtwell). 
(It wintered in Albuquerque, 1918-19] and was found at the southern end of the San 
Mateo Mountains, December 7 to 10, 1915 (Ligon). 
Early spring migrants sometimes appear in southern New Mexico in February, 
but usually the migration begins about the middle of March, and by the latter 
part of the month the birds have reached the northern part of the State. One 
was noted at Fort Wingate, March 11, 1887 (Shufeldt); and one at Albuquerque 
March 3, 1901 (Birtwell).—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Under bridges, about houses and barns, on windmills, in wells, caves, 
old tunnels, abandoned mine shafts, under shelves of rock, and also in a pocket 
in the steep bank of an arroya; made of weed stems, dry grasses, moss, plant fibers, 
wool, cocoons, spider webs, and hair, lined with wool or hair; sometimes with the 
addition of mud. Eggs: Usually 4 or 5, white, sometimes with a few specks of 
reddish brown around the larger end. 
Food. —Insects, 99.78 per cent. Useful beetles, 5.95 per cent, neutral or harm¬ 
ful beetles, 9.72 per cent; hymenoptera, mainly wasps and wild bees (no honey 
bees), 30.72 per cent; flies, mostly of the families of the house fly, crane fly, and 
robber fly, 16.67 per cent; grasshoppers and crickets, 15.36 per cent—in Colfax 
County, July 28-October 24, grasshoppers 37 per cent (Kalmbach)—caterpillars 
and moths, 12.12 per cent; and a small amount of bugs, dragon flies, spiders, milli¬ 
pede, and sow bugs. While more predatory beetles are eaten than by any other 
flycatcher, the per cent is so small compared with the injurious insects eaten that 
it deserves protection. 
General Habits. —The brown-bellied, black-tailed Say Phoebe, 
like the eastern Phoebe is fond of nesting about houses, becoming 
attached to its chosen nesting site and often returning year after year— 
perhaps to the same piazza crotch. At Mesilla, where the Say ranks 
next to the Arkansas in numbers, Professor Merrill had a pair nest on his 
piazza for a term of years, usually rearing two broods, the first being 
out by the first of May, the second not until July. That crowds and noise 
do not disturb the friendly birds is shown by a nest over the main 
entrance of a High School, and one that we found at Deming, on a 
piazza of the depot hotel over the tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad. More 
conservative members of the family, how T ever, keep to the ways of their 
forbears, nesting far from the habitations of man. A curious nest found 
by Mr. Munro in British Columbia, made largely of dry lace-like pond- 
weed that had been washed up on a beach and bleached white by the 
sun, was placed inside a vacant tent, on a wooden cross-support, near 
the door (1919b, p. 71). 
At Santa Rosa, we found four nests containing young. All were on 
ledges near water holes, except one in a dry well on high plains far from 
