Description.—_Adult_: Upperparts brownish slate with a just
perceptible tinge of olivaceous on back; top of head a deeper shade,
and without olivaceous; wings and tail dusky-blackish, the former with
some brownish gray edging only on tertials; flank-tufts of fluffy,
yellowish or white feathers, sometimes spreading across rump and in
marked contrast to it, but usually concealed by wings; throat, belly
and crissum, and sometimes middle line of breast, white or yellowish
white; heavily shaded on sides and sometimes across breast with
brownish gray or olive-brown,—the feathers with darker shaft-streaks;
bill black above, pale yellow below; feet black. _Immature_: Similar
to adult, but coloration a little brighter; wing-coverts fulvous or
buffy. Length 7.00-8.00 (177.8-203.2); wing 4.16 (105.7); tail 2.64
(67.1); bill from nostril .53 (13.5); tarsus .59 (15).
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow to Chewink size; heavy shaded sides; bill
yellow below; _tew-tew_ note; keeps largely to summits of fir trees.
Nesting.—_Nest_: a shallow cup of twigs, bark-strips, etc., lined with
coarse moss and rootlets; saddled upon horizontal limb of coniferous
trees, often at great heights. _Eggs_: 3 or 4, creamy-white or pale
buff, spotted distinctly with chestnut and rufous, and obscurely with
purplish and lavender, chiefly in ring about larger end. Av. size, .85
× .63 (21.6 × 16). _Season_: June 1-15; one brood.
General Range.—North America, breeding from the northern and the
higher mountainous parts of the United States northward to Hudson Bay
and Alaska. Accidental in Greenland. In winter south to Central
America, Colombia and northern Peru.
Range in Washington.—Summer resident in coniferous timber from sea
level to limit of trees.
Migrations.—_Spring_: c. May 15.
Authorities.—_Contopus borealis_, Baird, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv.
IX. 1858, p. 189. Ibid C&S. 169. C&S. D¹. Kb. Ra. B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P¹. Prov. B. E.
Flycatchers belong to the sub-order _Clamatores_, that is to say,
Shouters. Some few of our American Flycatchers lisp and sigh rather than
cry aloud, but of those which shout the Olive-sided Flycatcher is easily
dean. And it is as an elocutionist only that most of us know this bird,
even tho our opportunities may have stretched along for decades. On a
morning in mid May, as surely as the season comes around, one hears a
strong insistent voice shouting, “_See here!_” There is not much to see,
save a dun-colored bird seated at an impossible height on the summit of
a tall fir tree. Its posture is that easy half-slouch which with the
Flycatchers betokens instant readiness for action. While we are ogling,
the bird launches from his post, seizes an insect some thirty feet
distant, and is back again before we have recovered from surprise. “_See
here!_” the bird repeats, but its accent is unchanged and there is
really nothing more to see.
[Illustration: _Taken in Chelan County._ _Photo by W. Leon Dawson._
CASCADE PASS AND THE VALLEY OF THE STEHEKIN.
A CHARACTERISTIC HAUNT OF THE OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER.]
An intimate acquaintance with the Olive-sided Flycatcher is not easily
attained; but its characteristic cry carries to a distance of half a
mile or more, and is, fortunately, quite unforgettable. Both in accent
and energy it seems to set the pace for several of the lesser Tyrants.
Of course, like many another of the voices of Nature, its interpretation
depends a good deal upon the mood of the listener. Heard on a dull day
at sea-level it may sound dismal enough, but heard in the sharp air of
the mountains it becomes an exultant note. There are miners in the heart
of the Cascades who regard the brisk evening greeting of this Flycatcher
as one of the compensations of solitude. “_Three cheers!_” the bird
seems to say to one who returns from the silent bowels of the earth and
grasps again the facts of outer life.
_Borealis_ is a bird of the tree-tops and nearer you cannot come, save
in nesting season, when caution is thrown to the winds and a study in
morbid psychology is all too easy. The birds place a rustic saucer of
interwoven black rootlets and mosses on the upper side of a horizontal
branch, whether of hemlock, fir, or cedar, and, as often as otherwise,
at moderate heights. They are very uneasy at the presence of strangers
and flit about with a restless, tittering, cry, _tew-tew, tew-tew_, or
_tew-tew-tew_, a sound which strangely excites the blood of the
oölogist. Once the nesting tree is made out and the ascent begun, the
birds are beside themselves with rage, and dash at the intruder with
angry cries, which really stimulate endeavor where they are intended to
discourage it.
How fatal is the beauty of an egg-shell! There be those of us who have
drunk so oft of this subtle potion that the hand goes out instinctively
to grasp the proffered cup. Besides, the product of an Olive-side’s
skill is of a very special kind—a rich cream-colored oval, warmed by a
hint of living flesh and splotched with saucy chestnut. It is
irresistible! But, boys, don’t do it! We are old topers ourselves;
public sentiment is against us, and our days are numbered. It is right
that it should be so. Besides that, and speaking in all seriousness now,
while it is desirable and necessary that a few representative
collections of natural history should be built up _for the public use_,
it does not follow that the public good is secured by the accumulation
of endless private hordes of bird’s-eggs—whose logical end, in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, is the scrap-heap. You are probably
one of the ninety-nine. Think twice before you start a collection and
then—don’t!
No. 147.
WESTERN WOOD PEWEE.
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.
[Illustration: 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_.
No. 148.
WESTERN FLYCATCHER.
A. O. U. No. 464. Empidonax difficilis Baird.
Synonym.—Western Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.
Description.—_Adults_: Above and on sides of breast olive or
olive-green; a lighter shade of same color continued across breast;
remaining underparts yellow (between sulphur and primrose), sordid on
throat and sides, clearest on abdomen; bend of wing sulphur-yellow; a
faint yellowish eye-ring; axillaries and lining of wings paler yellow;
middle coverts and tips of greater coverts, continuous with edging of
exposed secondaries, yellowish gray, forming two more or less
conspicuous wing-bars. Bill brownish black above, yellow below; feet
and legs brownish dusky; iris brown. _Young birds_ are browner above
and paler below; wing-bars cinnamon-buffy, (and not certainly
distinguishable in color from young of _E. traillii_). Length
5.50-6.00 (139.7-152.4); wing 2.64 (67); tail 2.24 (57); bill .47
(12); tarsus.67 (17).
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; characterized by pervading
yellowness;—really the easiest, because the most common of this
difficult group; note a soft _piswit_; a woodland recluse. Adults
always more yellow than _E. traillii_, from which it is not otherwise
certainly distinguishable afield (save by note).
Nesting.—_Nest_: placed anywhere in forest or about shaded cliffs,
chiefly at lower levels; usually well constructed of soft green moss,
fine grasses, fir needles and hemp. _Eggs_: 3 or 4, dull creamy white,
sparingly spotted and dotted or blotched with cinnamon and pinkish
brown, chiefly about larger end. Av. size .66 × .52 (16.8 × 13.2).
_Season_: May 1-July 1; one or two broods.
General Range.—Western North America from the eastern base of the
Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, breeding north to Sitka and south
chiefly in the mountains to northern Lower California and northern
Mexico; south in winter into Mexico.
Range in Washington.—Common summer resident in timbered sections
thruout the State.
Migrations.—_Spring_: Seattle-Tacoma, April 15. _Fall_: c. Sept. 1.
Authorities.—_Empidonax difficilis_, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX.
1858, p. 193 “Catal. No. 5920.” L. D¹. Ra. Ss¹. Ss². B. E.
Specimens.—(U. of W.) P. Prov. B. BN. E.
Please observe the scientific name, _difficilis_, that is, difficult.
There is a delicate irony about the use of this term as a distinctive
appellation for _one_ of the “gnat kings,” for, surely, the plural,
_Empidonaces difficiles_, would comprehend them all. There is something,
indeed, to be learned from the notes of these little Flycatchers, and
the first year the author studied them seriously he supposed he had a
sure clew to their specific unraveling. But that was in the freshmen
year of Empidonaxology. In coming up for “final exams.” he confesses to
knowing somewhat less about them.
The bird, also, is well called Western; for however difficult the genus,
we know at least that _difficilis_ (speaking seriously now) is the
commonest species; that it appears under more varied conditions and
enjoys a more general distribution than any other species of Empidonax
in the West. The bird is, also, the first to arrive in the spring,
returning to the latitude of Seattle about the middle of April, or when
the yellow-green racemes of the Large-leafed Maple (_Acer macrophyllum_)
are first shaken out to the breeze. The little fay keeps well up in the
trees, occupying central positions rather than exposed outposts; and so
perfectly do his colors blend in with the tender hues of the new foliage
that we hear him twenty times to once we see him.
The notes are little explosive sibilants fenced in by initial and final
“p” or “t” sounds. If one prints them they are not at all to be
vocalized, but only whispered or hissed, _pssseet, pssseeit, psswit_, or
_piswit_. Other variations are _sé a-wit_, slowly and listlessly;
_cleotip_, briskly; _kushchtlip_, a fairy sneeze in Russian. One becomes
familiar with these tiny cachinations, and announces the Western
Flycatcher unseen with some degree of confidence. But the way is beset
with dangers and surprises. Once, in June, at a point on Lake Chelan,
after an hour’s discriminating study, I shot from practically the same
stand, three birds which said _swit_, _piswit_, and _pisoo_
respectively, and picked up a Wright’s Flycatcher (_E. wrightii_), a
Western Flycatcher (_E. difficilis_) and a Trail Flycatcher (_E.
traillii_). The same woods contained Hammond’s Flycatcher (_E.
hammondi_), while the Western Wood Pewee (_Myiochanes richardsonii_),
which has the same general economy, was abundant also. _Difficilis?
Etiam!_
The Western Flycatcher inhabits the deepest woods and occurs thruout the
State wherever sufficient shade is offered. It is rather partial to
well-watered valleys, and will follow these well up into the mountains,
but does not occur on the mountain-sides proper at any considerable
altitude. Nor does it appear to visit, save during migrations, those
green oases in the dry country which are the delight of _E. traillii_.
It mingles with _traillii_ in summer along the banks of streams and at
the edges of swamps; with _hammondi_ in the more open woods and along
the lower hillsides; with _wrightii_ along the margin of mountain lakes
and streams; but in the forests proper it is easily dominant.
The Western Flycatcher is a catholic nester. It builds almost always a
substantial cup of twigs, grasses, and hemp, lined with grass, hair or
feathers. The outside is usually plentifully bedecked with moss, or else
the whole structure is chiefly composed of this substance—not, however,
unless the color-tone of the immediate surroundings will permit of it.
In position it varies without limit. We find nests sunk like a
Solitaire’s in a mossy bank, or set in a niche of a rocky cliff, on
logs, stumps, or beams, in a clump of ferns, or securely lodged in a fir
tree at a height of forty feet. One I found in a swamp was saddled on
the stem of a slanting vine maple without a vestige of cover other than
that afforded by the general gloom.
[Illustration: _Taken near Tacoma._ _Photo by J. H. Bowles._
NEST OF WESTERN FLYCATCHER.]
Eggs to the number of three or four, rarely five, are deposited late in
May or early in June, and only one brood is raised in a season. The eggs
are of a dull creamy white color, spotted and blotched rather lightly
with cinnamon brown and pinkish buff, easily distinguishable from all
others save those of the Traill Flycatcher.
These Flycatchers in nesting time are very confiding and very devoted
parents. One may sometimes touch the sitting bird, and, when off, she
flutters about very close to the intruder, sneezing violently and
snipping her mandibles like fairy scissors.
No. 149.
TRAILL’S FLYCATCHER.