This very remarkable bird was originally described from Mexico by Swainson, and appears to have been first assigned to our fauna by Colonel George A. McCall, who met with it in 1852, while traveling from Vallecita to El Chino. It is said to occur in mountainous regions throughout the southern portions of California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, and probably in parts of Colorado and Utah. In Southern California, according to B, W. Evermann, of Bloomington, Ind., who has devoted considerable time to the study of its habits, it is quite locally distributed, and is rather a common summer resident in the smaller valleys and canyons, but is rarely observed "in the larger valleys or more open level country." Among the foot-hills in the vicinity of Frezno Flats, he encountered considerable numbers on the evergreen oaks, in July, 1880, but only a single pair at the entrance of the Yosemite Valley, and these were perched high-up in a tall sugar-pine, not silent, however, but calling to each other in their own peculiar fashion.

Our friend's first acquaintance with this species was made in the delightful valley of Santa Clara in October, 1879, while collecting Gambel's Sparrows. Intent upon the business before him, he was pursuing his way along a fence, when a strange bird, light and graceful upon the wing, was seen nervously moving from one point to another, ever and anon darting at some passing insect, and uttering in the intervals of feeding the oddest and most querulous note he had ever heard. This note, says our informant, was "full of sadness, desolation and despair." Never before had he been so affected by song of bird as by this. Since then several opportunities have been afforded him, and many an hour has been spent in listening to its song.

In the lovely month of May, of the year that has just passed, while watching two pairs engaged in nesting, he was treated to a delightful and gratuitous serenade, late in the evening, when most birds had retired to their perches. Ceased from their labors, they had taken their stations upon the topmost boughs of the live oaks which supported their nests, when one of the males instantly tuned his pipe, and gave expression to the sweetest yet saddest of refrains, which was "low, slow, sad and indescribably delicious and fascinating." Mr. Evermann, in speaking of it, says: "I could think of nothing with which to compare it, but at times I thought I could detect a slight resemblance to the lowest, most subdued notes of the Sickle-billed Thrasher." The song is certainly wonderful and unique, and should entitle its author to a very exalted position among singing-birds. From all accounts it is most generally heard at nightfall, and only occasionally in the early part of the afternoon. Of the few writers who have treated of this species, Doctors Coues and Cooper seem to be the only persons, besides the one we have just referred to, who are willing to credit it with musical ability.

From their winter-home in Lower Arizona and Mexico these birds reach Southern California from the fifteenth to the twentieth of April—males and females together. At first they are somewhat gregarious, not from feelings of sociability, if we are rightly informed, but from the presence of favorite articles of food which abound in certain places. Though insects constitute a very considerable portion of their diet, yet like their supposed nearest affinity—the Cedar-bird—they are fond of the various berries that are to be found in their accustomed haunts. The fruit of the mistletoe is said to give them abundance of nutritious food during their entire stay. Henshaw says: "Large numbers of this species were found, on several occasions, in the canyon back of Camp Apache, Arizona. As they were noticed nowhere else in this vicinity, I judged that the abundance of mistletoe berries here served as an attraction. These they were greedily feeding upon." The same author found immense numbers gathered together in the canyon at Camp Bowie, Ariz., feeding upon a species of wild plum and also of grape, fruits of which they were particularly fond. Their predilection for the berries of the mistletoe is attested to by other writers no less eminent.

Though close and vigorous feeders, yet they do not carry their greed to the extent that the Cedar-bird does, which, as we have seen, never seems to be in any very great hurry to enter upon the duties of nidification. The cares of the household early engross their attention. The flocks break up into pairs, and the latter soon start off in quest of suitable nesting places. The tree selected in Southern California appears to be the live oak exclusively, but in other localities, the mezquite sometimes shares with it the honor. Of seven nests examined by Evermann, four were saddled on a horizontal limb from four to twenty-five feet above the ground, and near the end; one was placed upon three small twigs, another upon two, and the last in a forked branch, thirty feet high, and in the extreme summit. In the work of building there seems to be no division of labor, and each bird appears to act independently of the other. The utmost caution is taken to prevent discovery. When a suitable twig, or other substance has been found by either, it is not carried directly to the nest, but the finder first flies to a neighboring bush or tree, where he alights for a brief spell, and shows his anxiety by a nervous twitching of the tail. Uttering a call, he spreads his wings for flight, and glides swiftly to another tree, and perhaps to another, each time approaching nearer and nearer to the nesting-tree, the bright white spot upon the wing gleaming in the sunlight in vivid contrast with the black body-color. If aware of your presence, he seemingly endeavors to delude you, for just when you think you are sure of his location, if you have not already discovered it by observation, he disappoints you by flying to a more distant tree, where he ceases his notes, rests awhile, but only to resume his hitherto circuitous flight directly to the wished-for spot. While working upon the nest the most perfect silence is maintained, and the builder always leaves in the direction opposite to that by which he entered. The routine was so closely followed by Evermann, that he could generally guess with tolerable accuracy what movements were in contemplation.

We are told that from five to eight days are required for the completion of the domicile, and that laying commences on the day succeeding this event, one egg being laid daily until the full nest-complement is reached. By the fifteenth of May the birds are ready for incubation, although in some cases this business is entered into by the fourth, and occasionally not until the nineteenth of the month.

Respecting the number of eggs laid, Mr. Evermann finds that three is. the usual number, although up to the time of his observations, it was the opinion of ornithologists that the birds deposited but two. Seven nests were secured by this collector, in the vicinity of Santa Paula, Cal., and all excepting one were found to contain three eggs, and this had but two. Dr. Cooper gives but two as the ordinary complement, and he is the first individual who called attention to the nest of the species. This structure was found near Fort Mojave, on the Colorado, 011 the twenty-fifth of April, and was placed in a mezquite branch at a height of twelve feet from the ground. No further particulars were given of this find, until Dr. Brewer described it in the first volume of the "History of North American Birds." Substantially, he says the nest was a very flat affair, four inches in external diameter, not two in height, and with a depth of cavity of less than an inch. It was composed almost wholly of flax-like fibres, fine grasses, plant-stems, and stalks of larger size, variously interwoven, and lined with a soft downy material of vegetable character.

This notice of Dr. Cooper's nest, though probably authentic, is thought by Coues not free from suspicion. The material of Captain Bendire, which maybe found described in the Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Boston, though ascribed by Brewer to Townsend's Flycatcher, unquestionably belongs to the Black-crested, for the nest and eggs of the former are too well known, through the exertions of Mr. Wilbur F. Lamb, of Holyoke, Mass., whose interesting narrative appears in the Bulletin of the Kuttall Ornithological Club, for 1877, to lead any intelligent naturalist to refer it thereto. Recurring to the subject, in the Appendix to the above "History," Brewer re-describes the Bendire material, although in very unsatisfactory terms. He says the nest was found saddled, most generally, on a horizontal branch of a mezquite tree, and is a shallow, nearly flat structure, measuring four inches across, and having a cavity two and a half inches in diameter, and one-half an inch in depth. Fine sticks and fibres of plants make up the external bulk, and within a little down of the cottonwood and a stray feather. The first nest, which was found May 16, was mainly lined with the shells of empty cocoons. Though the captain met with more than a dozen nests with eggs and young, yet, astonishing to say, he never found more than two in a nest—a striking contrast to Evermann's observations. In attempting to reconcile the difference he honestly says: "The thing is perhaps accounted for, and I am very positive about my views being correct, that in California they [the Black-crested Flycatchers] raise only one brood, while in Arizona they raise two and three." There is no doubt of the correctness of his opinion, for in this, as in many other species, the number of eggs in a set is probably larger in the northern parts of the breeding-range than in the southern, the difference being made up by the greater number of broods annually raised in the latter.

There seems to be considerable uniformity in the character of the materials utilized in nesting. Before us are six nests from Southern California, and, on close examination, each seems to be the exact counterpart of every other. Fine grass, small sticks, thin hairy stems, vegetable fibres and wool, empty cocoons and seed vessels, the latter attached to their stalks, curiously and ingeniously matted together, and presenting a rather even surface, considering the abundance of sticks utilized, make up nearly the entire structure. The cavity exhibits the same materials, but then they are more smoothly adjusted by the builders. None of the nests before us are perfectly round, such as we sometimes see in the Wood Pewee's lichen-clad home, but are somewhat eccentric in contour. The same irregularity is usually a conspicuous feature of the inside. In external diameter they are nearly four inches, and in length vary from one and a half to two, one side being sometimes a half inch thicker than the other, not an accidental occurrence, but probably the result of design, due, no doubt, to the position of the nest upon the branch, the thicker part looking outwardly where exposure is the greater. The depression is two and a half inches wide, and the depth usually but a half, but varying from that to as much as an inch. In the Plate it is represented natural in size, and saddled upon a horizontal branch of the live oak, a short distance in advance of the builders.

The eggs, two or three in number, are of an oblong oval shape, and vary from a greenish-white to a lavender and a grayish-white groundcolor, and are rather strongly marked with small, distinct spots of divers shades of brown, interspersed with fine dottings of slate, which are pretty uniformly diffused over the surface, although most abundant about the larger extremity. The distribution of these spots presents some marked variations, but, according to our experience, a uniformity prevails in eggs of the same clutch. A set of three before us shows the following measurements: .94 by .69, .94 by .68 and .93 by .68. Incubation begins immediately after the eggs are laid, according to Mr. Evermann, and is the exclusive duty of the female for about fourteen days.

The young male partakes of the coloration of both parents, but the adult is a uniform lustrous black, the monotony of which is in a measure relieved by large white patches upon the wings, most of the inner web of each primary feather, excepting the first, showing this latter color. The female is brown, the white on the wings being much restricted, or obsolete. Their entire length is about seven and a half inches, wing three and three-fifths, and tail four and a quarter.