Return of a Western Flycatcher to a Particular Locality
Return of a Western Flycatcher to a Particular Locality
During the spring and summer of 1913 a Western Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis difficilis), inhabiting the laurels and live oaks along Strawberry Creek near the Faculty Club, attracted my attention by its note. This differed from that of all other birds of this species which I have observed, in that the usual single note of rising inflection was preceded and succeeded by single short monotonous notes. This year (1914) the same note has been heard almost daily in the same locality. I believe, therefore, that the identical bird has returned to the same haunts that it occupied during the previous year. If this be true we have here another exhibition of the homing instinct in birds.
Tracey I. Storer
Department of Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, California.
