The Bird Book Part 58

Range.--Abundant in southern Mexico; casual in southern Texas.

This species is greenish above, with a bronzy l.u.s.tre; the tail is reddish brown, and the throat and breast are metallic green. They breed abundantly about houses and nest apparently at all seasons of the year in Central America, where they are the most common species of Hummers.

[Ill.u.s.tration 280: 436--437--438.]

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439. BUFF-BELLIED HUMMINGBIRD. _Amizilis cerviniventris chalconota._

Range.--Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas and southward through Mexico.

These birds are like the last but have the underparts a pale brownish buff color. They are quite common in their summer range in the United States, nesting at a low elevation in bushes and low trees. The two eggs are white, .50 .35. Data.--Brownsville, Texas, May 5, 1892. Nest of fine bark-like fibre on the outside, lined with lint from thistle plant; located on limb of small hackberry. Collector, Frank G. Armstrong.

440. XANTUS' HUMMINGBIRD. _Basilinna xantusi._

Range.--Southern Lower California.

A handsome species, greenish above, with a coppery tinge and shading into reddish brown on the tail; under parts buffy, throat metallic green, and a broad white streak behind the eye. They breed on the ranges making a similar nest to those of other Hummers, placed on weeds or bushes near the ground. The eggs cannot be distinguished from those of the majority of other species.

440.1. WHITE-EARED HUMMINGBIRD. _Basilinna leucotis._

Range.--A Central American and Mexican species, casually found on the ranges in Southern Arizona.

The plumage of this species is greenish above and below, being metallic green on the breast; the forehead, sides of head, and throat are iridescent blue and a white line extends back from the eye.

441. BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD. _Cynanthus latirostris._

Range.--Mountains of central Mexico north to southern Arizona and New Mexico.

The throat of this species is a rich metallic blue; otherwise the plumage is greenish above and below, being brighter and more irisdescent on the breast. They are not uncommon on the ranges of southern Arizona, where they have been found nesting in July and August, their nest not being unlike those of the Rufous Hummer, but with the exterior largely composed of shreds of grayish bark and lichens. Their eggs are like many others of the Hummers.

[Ill.u.s.tration 281: 439--440.1--441.]

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PERCHING BIRDS. Order XVII. Pa.s.sERES

COTINGAS. Family COTINGIDAE

441.1. XANTUS BECARD. _Platypsaris aglaiae albiventris._

Range.--Mexico; north casually to the southern border of Arizona.

This peculiar species is grayish above and lighter gray below, has dark slaty crown, and a patch of rose color on the lower throat. This is the only representative of this tropical family that has been found as yet over the Mexican border, but its near ally, the Rose-throated Becard has been found within a very few miles and will doubtless be added to our fauna as an accidental visitor ere long. Their nests are large ma.s.ses of gra.s.ses, weeds, strips of bark, etc., partially suspended from the forks of branches. Their eggs number four or five and are a pale buffy gray color, dotted and scratched with a pale reddish brown and dark gray.

Size .95 .70. The one figured is from a set in the collection of Mr.

Crandall, taken June 1, 1897 at Presidio Sinaloa, Mexico.

FLYCATCHERS. Family TYRANNIDae

Flycatchers, which are found only in America and chiefly in the tropics, are insect-eating birds, generally having a grayish colored plumage, sometimes adorned with a slight crest or a coronal mark of orange, red, or yellow. Only two of the species found in North America are gaudy in plumage, the Vermilion, and the Derby Flycatchers. They all have the habit of sitting erect on a dead twig, and watching for pa.s.sing insects, which they catch on the wing.

442. FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER. _Muscivora tryannus._

Range.--A Central and South American species accidentally having occurred in the United States on several occasions.

This is a handsome black, white and gray species of the size and form of the next.

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443. SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER. _Muscivora forficata._

Range.--Mexico, north through Texas to southern Kansas; accidental in other parts of the country.

The Scissor-tail or "Texan Bird of Paradise" is the most beautiful member of this interesting family. Including its long tail, often 10 inches in length and forked for about 6 inches, this Flycatcher reaches a length of about 15 inches. It is pale grayish above, fading into whitish below, and has scarlet linings to the wings, and a scarlet crown patch. They are one of the most abundant of the breeding birds in Texas, placing their large roughly built nests in all kinds of trees and at any elevation, but averaging between ten and fifteen feet above ground. The nests are built of rootlets, gra.s.ses, weeds and trash of all kinds, such as paper, rags, string, etc. The interior is generally lined with plant fibres, hair or wool. They lay from three to five, and rarely six eggs with a creamy white ground color, more or less spotted and blotched with reddish brown, lilac and gray, the markings generally being most numerous about the larger end. They average in size about .90 .67.

Data.--Corpus Christi, Texas, May 18, 1899. 6 eggs. Nest of moss, vines, etc., on small trees in open woods near town. Collector, Frank B.

Armstrong.

444. KINGBIRD. _Tyrannus tyrannus._

Range.--Temperate North America, breeding from the Gulf of Mexico north to New Brunswick, Manitoba and British Columbia; rare off the Pacific coast.

This common Tyrant Flycatcher is very abundant in the eastern parts of its range. They are one of the most pugnacious and courageous of birds attacking and driving away any feathered creature to which they take a dislike, regardless of size. Before and during the nesting season, their sharp, nerve-racking clatter is kept up all day long, and with redoubled vigor when anyone approaches their nesting site. They nest in any kind of a tree, in fields or open woods, and at any height from the ground, being found on fence rails within two feet of the ground or in the tops of pines 70 or 80 feet above the earth. Nearly every orchard will be found to contain one or

[Ill.u.s.tration 283: Creamy white.]

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[Ill.u.s.tration: Cream color.]

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more pairs of these great insect destroyers; if more than one pair, there will be continual warfare as often as one encroaches on the domains of the other. Their nests are made of strips of vegetable fibre, weeds, etc., and lined with horsehair or catkins. They are sometimes quite bulky and generally very substantially made. The three to five eggs are laid the latter part of May, and are of a creamy ground color splashed with reddish brown and lilac. Size .95 .70. Data.--Worcester County, Ma.s.sachusetts, June 3, 1895. 4 eggs. Nest 10 feet from the ground in an apple tree; made of fibres, string, rootlets and weeds, lined with horse hair. Collector, F. C. Clark.

[Ill.u.s.tration 284: G. E. Moulthrope. NEST AND EGGS OF KINGBIRD.]