A. O. U. No. 462. Myiochanes richardsonii (Swains.).
Synonyms.—Short-legged Pewee. Richardson’s Pewee.
Description.—Adults: Above deep grayish brown or grayish olive-brown; a lighter shade of same continued around sides and across breast, lightening on chin and throat, on remaining underparts becoming white or yellowish white; middle and greater coverts tipped with grayish; outer webs of tertials edged with grayish white. Bill black above, dusky (never light) below. Young birds have the middle and greater coverts tipped with buffy (forming two not inconspicuous bars), and some buffy edging on rump and upper tail-coverts. This species bears a curiously close resemblance to M. virens of the East, insomuch that it is not always possible to separate specimens in the cabinet; yet the two are perfectly distinct in note and habit and are not suspected of intergradation. Length of adult males 6.00-6.50 (152.4-165.1); wing 3.43 (87); tail 2.60 (66); bill .51 (13); tarsus .53 (13.4). Females a little smaller.
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; dark coloration (appearing blackish),—but much darker and a little larger than any of the Empidonaces. Meezeer note of animated melancholy distinctive.
Nesting.—Nest: a shallow cup of compacted moss, grasses, rootlets, etc., lined with fine grasses and wool or hair, and decorated externally, or not, with lichens; saddled midway or in fork of horizontal limb, chiefly at moderate heights. Eggs: usually 3, sometimes 4, creamy white, marked by largish spots of distinct and obscure rufous brown or umber, chiefly in open wreath about larger end. Av. size, .71 × .55 (18 × 14). Season: June 10-July 10; one brood.
General Range.—Western North America; breeding north to Alaska and Northwest Territory, east to Manitoba and western portion of Great Plains to Texas, south to northern Mexico; south in winter over Mexico and Central America to Equador, Peru, and Bolivia.
Range in Washington.—Common summer resident and migrant east of the Cascades, chiefly in coniferous forests, occasionally in open sage; less common west of the mountains.
Migrations.—Spring: c. May 15; Tacoma May 5, 1907; Yakima May 14, 1895, May 15, 1900; Newport May 20, 1906; Conconnully May 27, 1896. Fall: c. Sept. 1.
Authorities.—[“Western Wood Pewee,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 (1885), 22.] ? Muscicapa richardsonii, Aud. Orn. Biog. V. 1839, pl. 434. [Contopus richardsonii, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, 189, 190. “Columbia River O. T. J. K. Townsend.”] Contopus richardsonii(?) Belding, L. B. P. D. 1890, p. 99 (Walla Walla, Dr. J. W. Williams). L¹. Rh. D¹. Kb. Ra. D². J. B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P¹. Prov. B. E.
The prey of gentle melancholy and the heir to gloom is this Pewee of the West. The day, indeed, is garish. The leaves of the fragrant cottonwoods glance and shimmer under the ardent sun; while the wavelets of the lake, tired of their morning romp, are sighing sleepily in the root-laced chambers of the overhanging shore. The vision of the distant hills is blurred by heat pulsations; the song of birds has ceased and the very caddis-flies are taking refuge from the glare. The sun is dominant and all Nature yields drowsy allegiance to his sway. All but Pewee. He avoids the sun, indeed, but from a sheltered perch he lifts a voice of protest, “Dear Me!”
It seems uncalled-for. The bird does not appear to be unhappy. Flycatching is good, and the Pewee cocks his head quite cheerfully as he returns to his perch after a successful foray. But, true to some hidden impulse, as you gaze upon him, he swells with approaching effort, his mandibles part, and he utters that doleful, appointed sound, dear me. His utterance has all the precision and finality of an assigned part in an orchestra. It is as if we were watching a single player in a symphony of Nature whose other strains were too subtle for our ears. The player seems inattentive to the music, he eyes the ceiling languidly, he notes a flashing diamond in the second box, he picks a flawed string absently, but at a moment he seizes the bow, gives the cello a vicious double scrape, dear me, and his task is done for that time.
WESTERN WOOD PEWEE.
The Western Wood Pewee is a late migrant, reaching the middle of the State about the 15th of May, and the northern border from five to ten days later. It is found wherever there is timber, but is partial to half-open situations, and is much more in evidence East than West. It is especially fond of pine groves and rough brushy hillsides near water. Cannon Hill, in Spokane, is a typical resort and a mere tyro can see three or four nests there on a June day.
The Pewee takes the public quite into her confidence in nest building. Not only does she build in the open, without a vestige of leafy cover, but when she is fully freighted with nesting material, she flies straight to the nest and proceeds to arrange it with perfect nonchalance. If a nest with eggs is discovered in the bird’s absence, she is quite likely to return and settle to her eggs without a troubled thought.
The nest is a moderately deep, well-made cup of hemp, fine bark-strips, grasses, and similar soft substances; and it is usually saddled upon a horizontal limb of pine, larch, maple, alder, oak, aspen, cottonwood, etc. But, occasionally, the nest is set in an upright crotch of a willow or some dead sapling. Nests having such support are naturally deeper than saddled nests, but the characteristic feature of both sorts is the choice of a site, quite removed from the protection of leaves. The grayish tone of the bark in the host tree is always accurately matched in the choice of nesting materials and, if the result can be secured in no other way, the exterior of the nest is elaborately draped with cobwebs.
All eggs appear beautiful to the seasoned oölogist, but few surpass in dainty elegance the three creamy ovals of the Pewee, with their spotting of quaint old browns and subdued lavenders. They are genuine antiques, and the connoisseur must pause to enjoy them even tho he honors the prior rights of Mr. and Mrs. M. Richardsonii.