122 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Georgia : 11 records, May 5 to June 27. 



Illinois : 14 records. May 25 to July 10 ; 8 records, June 9 to 22. 



Massachusetts: 25 records, May 28 to June 26; 13 records, June 7 

 to 15. 



Ontario : 3 records, June 14 to 28. 



Texas: 12 records, April 11 to July 21; 8 records, April 19 to 

 May 26. 



MYIARCHUS CRINITUS CRINITUS (Linnaeus) 



SOUTHERN CRESTED FLYCATCHER 



HABITS 



Because the Linnaean name for this species is based on Catesby's 

 description of a bird supposed to have come from South Carolina, and 

 because South Carolina specimens are supposed to belong to a south- 

 ern race, the above name is now restricted to the crested flycatchers 

 of Peninsular Florida, which are supposed to range north along the 

 Atlantic coast to southern South Carolina. This seems rather far- 

 fetched, as we have no definite type locality given for Catesby's bird, 

 which he said "breeds in Carolina and Virginia." 



This is what Dr. E. W. Nelson (1904) had to say on the subject: 

 "As first pointed out by Mr. Bangs, the Great Crested Flycatchers 

 of southern Florida are readily distinguished from birds occupying 

 other parts of its range by the much greater size of their bills. This 

 character appears so constant and is so marked that it seems to be 

 worthy of recognition by name, although not accompanied by any 

 other equally well marked differences. Unfortunately the birds from 

 the Carolinas are most like those from New England, so that Mr. 

 Bangs in his Myiarchus o^mitus horeus (Auk, XV, p. 179, April, 

 1898) renamed the type form. The name afterwards given by Mr. 

 Howe to the bird of southern Florida must therefore be recognized." 



Reginald Heber Howe, Jr. (1902), proposed to call the southern 

 Florida bird Myiarchus cHnitus residuum, saying: "The main and a 

 very sufficient character of separation given by Mr. Bangs, 'the swollen 

 bill' of the southern, as contrasted with the small and slender bill 

 of the northern bird, is very marked even in a comparison between 

 northern and southern Florida examples." 



Mr. Ridway (1907) relegated both new names to synonymy and 

 said: "After carefully comparing breeding specimens from Florida 

 with those from more northern localities I am unable to find differ- 

 ences sufficient, in my judgment, to warrant their subspecific separa- 

 tion." 



If the South Carolina birds are to be included in the southern race, 

 it seems likely that the range of this subspecies might be extended 



