FLYCATCHERS: VERMILION FLYCATCHER 
447 
Range. —Breeds in Lower Sonoran Zone from southeastern California, southern 
Nevada, southwestern Utah, Arizona, southern New Mexico, and Texas south to 
Yucatan, Guatemala, and Honduras. In winter, shifts north and west from its 
breeding area, in California, to Santa Barbara. 
State Records. —The Vermilion. Flycatcher was added to the list of New 
Mexico birds by Henry, who discovered a single individual in May, 1853, at Fort 
Webster, and later obtained another at Fort Thorn. It probably breeds in the 
San Luis Mountains, where it was taken July 7, 1892, and near there at Dog Spring 
July 28, 1892 (Meams). Near Beaver Lake, at 7,000 feet, it nested during 1913, 
the male arriving April 2, being joined by a mate two days later, and collected 
May 24 (Ligon). At Mesilla, a brood had just left the nest, July 23, 1913 (Merrill). 
It was noted on the upper Gila May 8, 1911, and June, 1915 (Roekhill). [It has 
been found common in the southwestern part of the State, ranging and nesting 
to Alma, to the Junction of the three Gila Rivers, north of Silver City; east as 
far as Silver City, and into the valley of the Mimbres River. Fresh eggs were 
found, April 28, 1916, in the northern part of its range (1916-1918); it was common 
in the Animas Mountains, May 7 and 8, 1920, especially about the Culberson 
Diamond A Ranch. A male was found 1 mile northeast of San Marcial, May 3, 
1924, the farthest north at which it was observed in the Rio Grande Valley (Ligon). 
It has been found at Fort Bayard in early spring (Roekhill, 1919).] Specimens 
were taken at Adobe Ranch, July 28, 1908 (Birdseye). The species is a common 
breeder just across the line in southeastern Arizona. 
In the fall migration, several were seen at Redrock September 30, 1908 (Goldman). 
The last were noted at Mesilla, September 27 and October 1, 1913 (Merrill).— 
W. W. Cooke. 
General Habits. —The Vermilion Flycatcher with his most un- 
flycatcher-like scarlet crown and underparts is nevertheless a true scion 
of the family, darting out after insects and returning to his branch with 
all the mannerisms of a dusky Western Wood Pewec. But his gay plumes 
do not pass for naught. In the nesting season he mounts high above the 
earth and puffing out his scarlet feathers hovers twittering in midair as 
if to call all spectators to witness, after which he floats down with 
inimitable grace. We saw him give this flight song in an oak mott in 
southern Texas and Mr. Ligon witnessed it in an open pine glade in 
Socorro County at 7,000 feet, where a pair were nesting. At Mesilla 
Park, where the birds spend the time from the first of May until October, 
their haunts and habits are much the same as those of the Western 
Wood Pewee. 
In southern Arizona a pair nested for years in the trees around the 
house of Mr. Willard, sometimes using the same fork for a nest twice in 
the same year. From their behavior he felt convinced that they were the 
same two birds (1918, p. 167). 
It is a great satisfaction to learn that in Argentina the South Amer¬ 
ican form of the Vermilion Flycatcher is protected in certain territories 
by a decree of the president. 
Additional Literature.—Grinnell, Joseph, Mammals and Birds of the 
Colorado Valley, Univ. of Calif. Publ. in Zoology, Vol. 12, No. 4, 153-155, 1914. 
Torrey, Bradford, Nature's Invitation, 266-272, 1904. 
