GREEN-CRESTED FLYCATCHER 203 



The Alder Flycatcher has been found breeding in northern 

 New Jersey, in northwestern Connecticut, and in eastern 

 Massachusetts, but outside the Canadian Zone it occurs 

 chiefly as a regular but rare migrant late in May or very 

 early in June. From the edge of the Canadian area north- 

 ward it is a rather common summer resident, frequenting 

 alder thickets along streams and swampy places, as well as 

 wet clearings and ill-drained hillsides. 



Its song is like the syllables qui-dee 1 , ending with a 

 marked ee instead of the sharp ic of the Chebec. The 

 singer either mounts an exposed perch, where he may be 

 seen jerking his head violently, or as often sings concealed 

 in the leafy twigs. Where the birds are common, the song 

 is heard as late as the first week in August, but it is not 

 regular after the middle of July. The call-note is a sharp 

 pip. 



Its appearance in the field is so like the Least Flycatcher 

 that only a very well-trained eye can distinguish the two 

 species. The notes, however, of the two are very unlike ; 

 the marked difference in habitat, moreover, should make it 

 comparatively easy to separate the two species in the breed- 

 ing season. 



Green-crested Flycatcher. Empidonax virescens 

 5.75 



Ad. — Upper parts dark gray; back tinged in strong light 

 with greenish; icing-bars buff or buffy -white ; under parts white, 

 tinged with sulphur-yellow, shaded on the breast with grayish or 

 greenish. 



Nest, on a limb, from four to twenty feet up, shallow, pensile, 

 of rootlets, grass, and plant stems, loosely put together. Eggs, 

 creamy-white, spotted with brown. 



The Green-crested Flycatcher is a locally common sum- 

 mer resident in the lower Hudson Valley as far north as 

 Sing Sing, and in New Jersey as far north as Plainfield, 



