OF KEW ENGLAND, 291 



toitli no huffish suffusion, etc.?] Outer iveb of the outermost tail- 

 feather (and possibly, but not probably, more of the tail), ivhite. 



(c). On the twelfth day of May, 1875, whilst walkiiag about 

 my father's place near Boston, I caught sight of a small fly- 

 catcher in some shrubbery which stood near an open field, and 

 which consisted of barberry-bushes, a white birch, etc., while 

 near this place were several apple-trees, pines, isolated oaks, 

 and other trees. There, soon after noon, I saw the subject of 

 this memoir. By his habits, his erected crown-feathers, and 

 his style of coloration, I knew him to be a flycatcher ; on ob- 

 serving his size and evCn tail, I ascribed him to the genus 

 Empidonax (or a closely allied genus) ; and, on noticing that 

 his tail was edged with white to the depth of an eighth of an 

 inch or more, when closed, I believed him to be a new species. 

 In Dr. Coues' " Key to North American Birds," but two fly- 

 catchers, ever found in the United States, are mentioned, who 

 have the outermost web of the tail white. Of these, Empido- 

 nax obscurus, AVright's Flycatcher (a bird of the south-western 

 United States), is much larger than pygniKus — for b}'- chance 

 a Pewee alighted beside the latter, and 1 noticed then that the 

 Pewee seemed to be at least two inches longer, if not more. 

 On the other hand, I did not observe in E. pygmmus the buflish 

 suff"usion, and yellow lower mandible, said to be the character- 

 istics of Mitrephorus fidvifrons, var. pallescens, a bird of the 

 same size, but belonging to a Mexican genus (though first 

 called by Dr. Coues '■'■Empidonax pygmceus, Buflf-breasted Fly- 

 catcher," when obtained by him at Fort Whipple, Arizona). 

 It hardly seems possible that the Buff-breasted Flycatcher 

 should have strayed to Massachusetts, though similar instances 

 of wandering have occurred before among birds. I feel quite 

 confident that the bird in question is a new species, probably 

 belonging to the genus Empidonax, though possibly to Mitre- 

 phorus, or even to a new genus (to be called Muscaccipiter). 

 After tr^'ing to identify my bird, and having hurriedly, and 

 yet with as much care as possible, endeavored to learn all 

 the details of his coloration, I proceeded to study his habits. 



For about three minutes I watched the bird (for he was not 



