FLYCATCHERS: WESTERN WOOD PEWEE 
443 
General Habits. —In the Huachuca Mountains of Arizona, Mr. 
Swarth found the Coues Flycatcher one of the characteristic birds of the 
pine regions. During the breeding season it was seen mainly between 
8,000 and 10,000 feet altitude, after which period it descended to the oak 
groves of the canyons, where, if not seen, it was heard almost every¬ 
where. 
The male is fond of perching high, usually on the end of a dead limb 
at the top of a tall pine or fir, remaining there for hours, frequently 
uttering his call. As Mr. Swarth says, in character and tone, the call 
resembles that of the Olive-sided Flycatcher (1904, p. 24). 
The bird’s local name, derived from the slow, plaintive notes is Jose 
Maria (pronounced Ho-scty, Mah-ree-ah), but as I heard it given in an 
Arizona snowstorm it lacked the first syllable of the Ma-re&-ah, being 
given as Jo-say , re-ah. This simple phrase was repeated over and over as 
the large Flycatcher went and came, with the “ sudden erratic flights” 
noted by Mr. Henshaw, low through the small trees bordering the live 
oaks. Sad-voiced friend of the mountains! Had he reached his summer 
home in the canyons above us only to be driven down by the snow that 
covered the mountains? In any case, when the storm was over he left, 
never to be seen again. Long after he had gone, however, his simple 
notes with their penetrating plaintive quality rang in my ears as a 
lament (1923a, p. 403; 1923b, p. 30). 
WESTERN WOOD PEWEE: Myiochanes richardsoni richardsoni (Swainson) 
Description. — Length: 6.2-6.7 inches, wing 3.1-3.5, tail 2.5-2.9, bill .4-.5, 
tarsus .4-.5. Adults: Upper jmrts dark grayish, tail grayish brown with lighter 
edges; wings dusky with two light bands and inner quill edgings; underparts heavily 
washed with olive-gray , tliroat, belly, and under tail coverts whitish. Young: Under¬ 
parts somewhat suffused with pale brownish buffy. 
Range. —Breeds from Alaska, southern Mackenzie, central Saskatchewan, and 
southern Manitoba south to northern Mexico and Lower California; migrates 
through Mexico and Central America; winters in Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. 
State Records. —The Western Wood Pewee has a most extended breeding 
range from Alaska to Mexico and from the Pacific to the Plains. It breeds in 
suitable places afforded by irrigation systems and groves of trees even among hot 
deserts, but more commonly in Transition Zone. In New Mexico the breeding 
range is zonally rather extended, from 3,800 feet at Mcsilla, with young in the 
nest July 5, 1913 (Merrill); and 4,500 feet along the Rio Grande at Socorro, where 
a nest was found August 19, 1909 (Goldman); to Hondo Canyon, where they were 
evidently breeding August 6, 1904, at 9,500 feet (Bailey); [22 miles southeast of 
Taos, June 20,1919, where they were observed rather commonly (Ligon); in northern 
Santa Fe County, where they were common near water up to 8,000 feet (Jensen, 
1922)1; and in the Zuni Mountains where they ranged almost to the top of the 
highest peaks (Goldman). The breeding range extends east to the Pajarito valley 
at 4,700 feet near Montoya (Bailey); probably to the Sierra Grande where they 
were common August 10-22, 1903 (Howell); and to Roswell, 3,300 feet, June 27, 
1913 (Ligon). [In 1916 in the western part of the State they were common in the 
