In the summer of 1895 I found Hammond Flycatchers fairly abundant on Capitol Hill (which was then in its pin-feather stage). Twenty or thirty might have been seen in the course of a morning’s walk in June. Everywhere were to be heard brisk Sewick’s in the precise fashion of eastern minimus; and at rarer intervals a more intense but still harsh and unresonant Sweé-chew. These observations were confirmed by the taking of several specimens; but elsewhere and in other seasons I have found the bird most unaccountably silent, and have been able to add little to its repertory of speech.
In the summer of 1906 we found these Flycatchers preparing nests on Cannon Hill in Spokane. In both instances the birds were building out in the open after the fashion of the Western Wood Pewee (Myiochanes richardsonii); one on the bare limb of a horse-chestnut tree some ten feet from the ground; the other upon an exposed elbow of a picturesque horizontal limb of a pine tree at a height of some sixty feet. Near Newport, in Stevens County, we located a nearly completed nest of this species on the 20th of May, and returned on the 1st of June to complete accounts. The nest was placed seven feet from the trunk of a tall fir tree, and at a height of forty feet. The bird was sitting, and when frightened dived headlong into the nearest thicket, where she skulked silently during our entire stay. The nest proved to be a delicate creation of the finest vegetable materials, weathered leaves, fibers, grasses, etc., carefully inwrought, and a considerable quantity of the orange-colored bracts of young fir trees. The lining was of hair, fine grass, bracts, and a single feather. In position the nest might well have been that of a Wood Pewee; but, altho it was deeply cupped, it was much broader, and so relatively flatter. The four fresh eggs which it contained were of a delicate cream-color, changing to pure white upon blowing.
The Hammond Flycatcher was also found to be a common breeder in the valley of the Stehekin, where Mr. Bowles has taken several sets in very similar situations, viz., upon horizontal branches of fir trees at considerable heights.
No. 151.
WRIGHT’S FLYCATCHER.
A. O. U. No. 469. Empidonax wrightii Baird.
Synonym.—Little Gray Flycatcher.
Description.—Adult (gray phase): Above dull bluish gray or faintly olivaceous on back and sides; throat and breast pale gray to whitish with admixture of ill-concealed dusky; remaining parts, posteriorly, faintly tinged with pale primrose; a whitish eye-ring; wing-markings, of the same pattern as in other species, or more extensive on secondaries and outer webs of tertials, definitely white; outer web of outermost rectrix pale whitish. Adult (yellow-bellied phase): As in gray phase, but underparts strongly tinged with yellow and upperparts faintly tinged with olive-green; wing-markings less purely white. Bill blackish above, more or less pale below and dusky tipped. Young birds are whitish below and the wing-bands are buffy as in other species. Length about 5.75 (146); wing 2.69 (68); tail 2.40 (61); bill .47 (12); tarsus .71 (18).
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; prevailing gray coloration; whitish eye-ring; excessively retiring habits.
Nesting.—Nest: of hemp, bark-strips, etc., softly lined; built in upright crotch of bush. Eggs: 4 or 5, white, unmarked. Av. size, .68 × .52 (17.3 × 13.2). Season: June; one brood.
General Range.—Western United States and southern British Columbia, breeding in Transition and Canadian life-zones, south to southern Arizona and east to Rocky Mountains; south in winter thru southern California and Mexico.
Authorities.—Dawson, Auk, Vol. XIV. Apr. 1897, p. 176.
Specimens.—Prov. C.
Bird-afraid-of-his-shadow is the name this shy recluse deserves. The few seen in Washington have always been skulking in the depths of brush patches, or in clumps of thorn bushes, and they seem to dread nothing so much as the human eye. For all they keep so close to cover they move about restlessly and are never still long enough to afford any satisfaction to the beholder.
The only note I have ever heard it utter (and this repeatedly by different individuals) was a soft liquid swit. But Major Bendire says of its occurrence at Fort Klamath in Oregon; “I do not consider this species as noisy as the Little Flycatcher [E. traillii] which was nearly as common, but its notes are very similar; in fact they are not easily distinguishable, but are given with less vigor than those of the former, while in its actions it is fully as energetic and sprightly as any of the species of the genus Empidonax.”
Wright’s Flycatcher affects higher altitudes than do the other species during the nesting season. The nest is placed at heights ranging from two to twenty feet, and is built in upright forks of bushes, or against the trunks of small saplings. Willows, alders, aspens, buck-brush, and service berry are common hosts. Perhaps the only nesting record for Washington consists of a set of four fresh eggs taken by myself from a draw on the side of Boulder Mountain overlooking the Stehekin Valley, on May 30, 1896. The nest had been deserted because of a brush fire which had swept the draw, but it was uninjured; and the situation, an alder fork eight feet up, together with the white eggs, made identification certain.