Hab. Coast of California, to Cape St. Lucas, and across by the valley of Gila and Rio Grande to Northeastern Mexico. Seen as far north in Texas as San Antonio. Oaxaca (Scl. 1859, 384); ? Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 129); Vera Cruz hot regions, resident (Sum. M. Bost. Soc. I); San Antonio, Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 473).
In a young specimen the crown is more tinged with brown; the upper tail-coverts and the middle tail-feathers are chestnut, and, in fact, all the tail-feathers are of this color, except along both sides of the shaft on the central feathers, and along its outer side in the lateral ones.
This species is easily distinguished from T. crinitus and T. cooperi by the brown tip of the tail; the colors paler than in the former, bill slenderer, and tarsi longer.
A variety of this species (pertinax[78]) is found at Cape St. Lucas, and distinguished chiefly by the considerably larger and stouter bill.
Habits. The Ash-throated or Mexican Flycatcher appears to be a common species, from San Antonio, Texas, its extreme northeastern point, southwesterly throughout Mexico as far south as Guatemala, and westward to the Pacific coast. It has been obtained in various parts of California by Mr. Cutts, Mr. Schott, Dr. Heermann, and others, as also on the Gila
River. Dr. Kennerly procured specimens at Los Nogales, Mexico, and others have met with it near the city of Mexico, at Saltillo, and in different parts of Western Texas. It was found breeding at Cape San Lucas by Mr. Xantus.
In the Department of Vera Cruz, Mr. Sumichrast found this species apparently confined to the hot region. He did not meet with it anywhere else.
Mr. Dresser thinks that this Flycatcher does not reach San Antonio before the latter part of April. The first that came under his notice was one that he shot, on the 23d of that month, on the Medina River. It breeds near the Medina and the San Antonio Rivers, making its nest in a hollow tree, or taking possession of a deserted Woodpecker’s hole. Mr. Dresser observed these birds as far to the east as the Guadaloupe River, where they were common. Farther east he saw but very few. Their eggs he speaks of as peculiarly marked with a multitude of purple and brown dashes and lines on a dull yellowish-brown ground, and very similar to those of Myiarchus crinitus.
In the Mexican Boundary Survey, individuals of this species were taken by Mr. A. Schott, March 31, on the Colorado Bottom; near the Gila River, New Mexico, December 31; and also at Eagle Pass, in Texas, date not given. Mr. J. H. Clark obtained a specimen at Frontera, Texas, where he mentions finding it in great abundance in damp places, or near the water. In May, 1853, Lieutenant Couch secured several near Saltillo, and notes its occurrence among mesquite-bushes. In the following June, Dr. Kennerly found them very abundant at Los Nogales. Where two were found together, they were generally noticed to be uttering a loud chattering noise.
Dr. Heermann, in his Report on the birds observed in the survey of Lieutenant Williamson’s route between the 32d. and the 35th parallels, mentions finding this species abundant. His specimens were obtained near Posa Creek. He describes them as of shy and retiring habits, preferring the deep and shady forests where its insect food abounds. The nests, found in hollows of trees or in a deserted squirrel’s or Woodpecker’s hole, were composed of grasses and lined with feathers. The eggs, five in number, he describes as cream-colored, marked and speckled with purplish-red dashes and faint blotches of a neutral tint.