LAND BIRDS. 403 



resident at Negaunee, Marquette county, and breeds there. Max M. Peet 

 records a pair seen in a tamarack swamp on Isle Royale, July 14, 1905, 

 and the female taken. Also another pair found in a cedar swamp July 

 26 (Adams' Rep., Mich. Geol. Surv., 1908, 359). 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult: Upper parts dark olive green, top of head little if any darker; under parts 

 mainly pale sulphur yellow, especially along the median line; sides of breast plain olive, 

 this color sometimes extending entirely across the breast and along the sides; two yellowish 

 white wing-bars formed by tips of greater and middle coverts; secondaries usually edged 

 with yellowish; tail olive brown; upper mandible dark brown, lower pinkish or yellowish 

 white; iris brown; feet black. 



Young: Similar but duller, the wing-bands yellower. 



Male: Length 5.10 to 5.80 inches; wing 2.55 to 2.75; tail 2.10 to 2.30; culmen .48 to ..59. 



Female: Wing 2.40 to 2.50 inches; tail 2 to 2.25. 



184. Acadian Flycatcher. Empidonax virescens (Vieillot). (465) 



Synonyms: Green-crested Flycatcher, Small Green-crested Flycatcher, Green Fly- 

 catcher. — Platyrhynchos virescens, Vieill. 1818. — Muscicapa querula, Wilson. — Tyrannula 

 acadica, Bonap. — Empidonax acadicus, Baird, Coues, B. B. & R., Nehrling, Bendire, and 

 others. — Empidonax virescens, A. O. U. Check-list, 1895. 



Not to be separated from the Alder Flycatcher, or even with certainty 

 from the Least and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers, except by the expert. 

 Its note and its nest and eggs are alike distinctive, but the note is not easily 

 described and the nest is seen much less often than the bird. 



Distribution. — Eastern United States, north to southern New York and 

 southern Michigan, west to the Plains, south to Cuba and Costa Rica. Rare 

 or casual in southern New England. 



Throughout the southern half of the Lower Peninsula this flycatcher 

 is generally distributed and a rather common inhabitant of upland woods, 

 particularly beech and maple. It is nowhere abundant, yet it is seldom 

 that any beech and maple grove of a dozen acres does not contain one or 

 more pairs of these birds. It seems to prefer the deep woods, and its favorite 

 haunts are the more or less leafless spaces midway between the earth and 

 the leafy crowns of the forest trees above. Here it sits, very much like 

 the Wood Pewee, darting from its favorite perch on a dead limb to capture 

 passing insects and at intervals uttering its sharp and characteristic note 

 which Bendire describes as "resembling 'wick-up' or 'sick-up' interspersed 

 now and then with a sharp 'queep-queep' or 'chier-queep,' the first syllable 

 very quickly uttered." 



The nest is peculiar, being frail, basket-like, j'et shallow, and almost 

 "always partly pensile. It is slightly built of slender twigs, rootlets and 

 grasses, often snugly fastened with cobwebs, and frequently decorated 

 with catkins of various trees. It is placed invariably on a horizontal spray 

 or drooping branch near the tip, most often on beech, maple or dogwood 

 {Cornus), but also on witch-hazel, hickory, oak and other trees. It is seldom 

 more than a dozen feet from the ground, often within reach of the hand, 

 and the bottom usually so thin that the eggs can be seen through it. These 

 are usually three, but may be either two or four. They are creamy or 

 buffy white, marked with specks and spots of different shades of brown, 

 mainly about the larger end. They average .71 by .53 inches. 



This bird arrives from the south at about the same time as the Wood 

 Pewee, and nests with eggs are found most often between June 1st and 12th. 



