Contopus borealis.
Sp. Char. Wings long, much pointed; the second quill longest; the first longer than the third. Tail deeply forked. Tarsi short. The upper parts ashy-brown, showing darker brown centres of the feathers; this is eminently the case on the top of the head; the sides of the head and neck, of the breast and body, resembling the back, but with the edges of the feathers tinged with gray, leaving a darker central streak. The chin, throat, narrow line down the middle of the breast and body, abdomen, and lower tail-coverts white, or sometimes with a faint tinge of yellow. The lower tail-coverts somewhat streaked with brown in the centre. On each side of the rump, generally concealed by the wings, is an elongated bunch of white silky feathers. The wings and tail very dark brown, the former with the edges of the secondaries and tertials edged with dull white. The lower wing-coverts and axillaries grayish-brown. The tips of the primaries and tail-feathers rather paler. Feet and upper mandible black, lower mandible brown. The young of the year similar, but the color duller; edges of wing-feathers dull rusty instead of grayish-white. The feet light brown. Length, 7.50; wing, 4.33; tail, 3.30; tarsus, .60.
Hab. Northern portions of whole of North America, throughout Rocky Mountains, south through elevated regions of Mexico to Costa Rica. Localities: Oaxaca, high regions, Oct. (Scl. 1858, 301); Xalapa (Scl. 1859, 366); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 122); Costa Rica (Lawr. IX, 115); Veragua (Salv. 1870, 199); San Antonio, Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 474, winter).
There is wonderfully little variation in this species, both in coloration and size, with different regions; in fact none other than individual can be observed. Contrary to the usual rule, spring specimens have a more appreciable sulphur-yellow tinge below.
Habits. This still comparatively rare species was first obtained by Richardson and described by Swainson. The specimen was shot on the Saskatchewan. No other was taken, and no information was obtained in reference to its habits. It appears to have been next met with by Mr. John Bethune, in Cambridge, June 7, 1830, in the woods of Mount Auburn. This and a
second specimen, obtained soon after, were females, on the point of incubation. A third female was shot in the following year, June 21. Supposed to be a new species, it was described by Mr. Nuttall as Tyrannus cooperi. All the specimens procured had their stomachs filled with torn fragments of bees, wasps, and similar insects.
Mr. Nuttall, who watched the motions of two other living individuals of this species, states that they appeared tyrannical and quarrelsome even with each other. Their attacks were always accompanied with a whining, querulous twitter. The disputes seemed to be about the occupancy of certain territories. One bird, a female, appeared to confine herself to a small clump of red cedars, in the midst of a sandy piece of forest. From the tree-tops she kept a sharp lookout for passing insects, and pursued them, as they appeared, with great vigor and success, sometimes chasing them to the ground, and returning to her perch with a mouthful which she devoured at her leisure. When she resumed her position, she would occasionally quiver her wings and tail, erect her crest, keeping up a whistling call of pŭ-pŭ, uttered with variations. Besides this call the male had a short song which sounded like ch’-phe’bēē.
The nest of this pair Mr. Nuttall discovered in the horizontal branch of a tall red cedar, fifty feet from the ground. It was made externally of interlaced dead twigs of the cedar, lined with wiry stems, and dry grasses, and fragments of lichens. It contained three young, which remained in the nest twenty-three days, and were fed on beetles and other insects. Before they left their nests they could fly as well as their parents. The male bird was very watchful, and would frequently follow Mr. Nuttall half a mile. They were in no way timid, and allowed him to investigate them and their premises without any signs of alarm.
In 1832 the same pair, apparently, took possession of a small juniper, near the tree they had occupied the year before, in which, at the height of fifteen feet, they placed their nest. It contained four eggs which, except in their superior size, were precisely similar to those of the Wood Pewee, yellowish cream-color, with dark brown and lavender-purple spots, thinly dispersed. After removing two of these eggs, the others were accidentally rolled out of the nest. The pair constructed another nest, again in a cedar-tree, at a short distance. The next year they did not return to that locality. Mr. Nuttall afterwards met with individuals of this species in the fir woods on the Columbia.