284 



LAKD-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



V. EMPIDONAX 



(A) TRAiLLi. Traill's Flycatcher. 



(Rare in Eastern Massachusetts ; most common in the latter 

 part of Ma3\) 



(a). Six inches long, or less. Tail, even ; crown-feathers, 

 erectile, dark-centred ; bill, not black. Above, dark oliver 

 green, usually tinged with brown. Beneath, white, shaded 

 with the color of the back on the sides, with grayish on the 

 breast, and with yellow behind. Eye-ring, and two wing-bars, 

 (yellowish) white* 



(6). The nest of this species is usually placed, not far from 



the ground, in a swamp 

 or near a brook, and fre- 

 quently in an alder-bush. 

 It is composed of grasses, 

 stalks of weeds, and nar- 

 row strips of barks. Sev- 

 eral eggs which I obtained 

 among the White Moun- 

 tains average about '65 X 

 •50 of an inch, and are 

 creamy, or pale buff, with 

 a few dots of reddish- 

 brown at the larger end. 

 Dr. Brewer describes oth- 

 ers as white, "marked al- 

 most entirely about the larger end with larger and well-de- 

 fined spots and blotches of purplish-brown." 



(c). The Traill's Fh-catchers are common summer-residents 

 in many parts of northern New England, and of Western Mas- 

 sachusetts, but near Boston they are verj' rare. They are 

 most common in the latter part of May, when they ma}'^ occa- 

 sionally be seen in copses, thickets, and swampy woodland. 

 They are then migrating, and are often entirclj' silent. Nearly 

 all pass on to the northward. Among the White Mountains, 

 they frequent wet woodland, sheltered water-courses, and bush}', 



Fig. 15. Traill's Flycatcher (|). 



