440 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
GRAY FLYCATCHER: Empidonax grfseus Brewster 
Deschiption. — Length: About 5.2 inches. Similar to E. wrighti but wing 
averaging decidedly longer, tail shorter, bill longer and relatively narrower, tip 
darker than base and coloration much grayer above. 
Remarks. —“While the two phases of coloration (the one with lower parts white 
and that with underparts primrose-yellow) are no more different in this form than 
in E. wrighti , they seem to be mainly seasonal, a large majority of those which 
are white or very faintly tinged with yellow beneath, being spring and summer 
birds while those decidedly yellowish beneath were nearly all obtained in autumn 
or winter” (Ridgway). 
Range. —Breeds in Sonoran Zone from Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, and New 
Mexico south to southern end of Mexican tableland; winters from southern California 
and southern Arizona south to Puebla and Tepic. 
State Records. —The Gray Flycatcher comes into the extreme southwestern 
part of New Mexico probably as a rare visitant. It was taken May 5, 1892, on 
the boundary line 100 miles west of the Rio Grande (Mearns), and at Apache 
(Anthony). The specimen that was taken May 3, 1872, in El Paso County, Colo¬ 
rado, must have crossed northern New Mexico in its wanderings.—W. \V. Cooke. 
Nest. —Mainly on canyon or mountain sides, in conifers, oaks, willows, and 
other trees, 2 to 40 feet from the ground; deeply cupped, some compactly and 
others loosely built, mainly of dry shredded inner bark of the willow, lined with 
finer shreds sometimes mixed with down feathers. Eggs: 2 to 4, cream-buff, some¬ 
times sparsely dotted, chiefly about the larger end, with burnt-umber. 
General Habits.— In the Huachuca Mountains in Arizona, Mr. 
Swarth found the Gray Flycatcher a common migrant. From the middle 
of April to the middle of May, he says, the three Empidonaxes , ham- 
mondi, wrighti , and griseus taken together were a feature of the avian 
landscape in all parts of the mountains; hammondi along the canyons 
and in the pines, wrighti in the oak belt, and griseus in the more barren 
country along the base of the range, where there were rough bowlder- 
strewn hills with but a scattering growth of scrubby live oaks; and during 
this time he says there was hardly a place where one or more of some one 
of these small flycatchers could not be seen, darting from tree or bush 
after some passing insect, or sitting on a twig with drooping wings and 
twitching tail (1904 p. 27). 
Additional Literature.—Grinnell, Joseph, The Biota of the San Ber¬ 
nardino Mountains, Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 78-82, 1908. 
BUFF-BREASTED FLYCATCHER: Empidonax fulvifrons pygmaeus Coues 
Description. — Length: About 4.7-5.1 inches, wing 2.2-2.4, tail 1.9-2.1, bill 
.5, width at base .2. Coronal feathers and rictal bristles longer than usual in 
Empidonax. Adults in spring and summer: Upperparts hair-brown , tail and wings 
grayish brown, outer web of outside tail feather grayish white; wing bands grayish, 
buffy, or dull whitish; throat pale buffy, chest and sides buffy or tawny , belly pale 
buff or whitish; bill brownish or blackish above, yellowish below. Adults in autumn 
and winter: Upperparts and wing bands more buffy, under parts deeper colored , the 
chest tawny-buff, the throat and belly light yellow and buff. Young: Similar to 
