NEW LIGHT ON THE STATUS OF EMPIDONAX TRAILLH 



(AUDUBONj. 



By Harry C. Obkkholskr. 



Few birds are so puzzling as the flycatchers of the American 

 genus Empidonax. None of these are more difficult to under- 

 stand than Empidonax traillii and its closely related forms, 

 the status of which has long been in dispute. The careful 

 investigations and reasonable conclusions of Mr. William 

 Brewster,* have long been accepted as the final word by 

 ornithologists generall}-; and it is with some degree of reluctance 

 that the wTiter now reopens the case. Subsequent identification 

 of breeding specimens, however, from the north central part of 

 the United States, from Ohio to x\rkansas, Missouri, and Iowa, 

 has indicated discrepancies in the range of Empidonax traillii 

 traillii as currently delineated. With the idea, therefore, of 

 confirming Mr. Brewster's conclusions and settling the identifi- 

 cation of specimens of this species in the Biological Survey 

 collection, the writer resolved to investigate the matter de novo; 

 and to this end has examined a large amount of material; in all, 

 411 specimens. The rather surprising and, to some extent, 

 unfortunate results of this study were announced at the meeting 

 of the American Ornithologists' Union at Philadelphia in 1911, 

 and therefore they long ago should have been placed on perma- 

 nent record. 



For the preparation of this paper the writer has made use 

 chiefly of the collection of the United States National Museum, 

 including that of the Biological Survey. In addition, he is 

 indebted for the loan of specimens and for other assistance to 

 Mr. P. A. Taverner, Mr. F. C. Lincoln, Mr. L. J. Kersey, and 

 Mr. F. Kermode. 



Empidonax traillii traillii (Audubon). 



Muscicapa traillii Audubon, Birds Amer., folio ed, I, 1828, 

 pi. 45 (woods along the prairie lands of the Arkansas River, 

 Arkansas) . 



Empidonax traillii alnorum Brewster, Auk, XII, No. 2, 

 April, 1895, p. IGl (Upton, Maine). 



*Auk. XII, No. 2, April, 1895, pp. 159-163. 



85 



