202 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



at the approach of any person, it would never be noticed, so small is it and 

 so well concealed by the waving leaves. * * * 



Although so busy, this Flycatcher is never so occupied as to miss a chance 

 of driving another bird, great or small, away from the special clump of alders 

 which the pugnacious mite has preempted for his own. When there is no one 

 else within scrapping distance, he contents himself with scolding his mate on 

 the nest. Apparently nothing suits him from the time the nest site is chosen 

 until the brood is reared. 



Major Bendire (1895) says: "They never remain long in one place, 

 but move from perch to perch, snapping up insects as they fly ; they 

 are pugnacious, quarrelsome little creatures, making up in courage 

 and determination what they lack in size. I have seen one drive 

 a Red-shouldered Blackbird away from the vicinity of its nest, 

 pitching down on it angrily and pecking at its head and neck in the 

 manner of its larger relatives when chasing Crows or Hawks." 



Voice. — Ralph Hoffmann (1927) gives the song as "an explosive 

 loeeps-a-pideea'^ and says: "The vigorous four or five syllabled song, 

 given in one utterance, with the characteristic emphasis at its close, 

 is quite unlike that of any of the other small flycatchers. The song 

 is occasionally shortened to the last two syllables, pi-deea and is often 

 preceded by an explosive prrit. Besides the song the Traill Fly- 

 catcher utters constantly a sharp whit and, when two birds quarrel, 

 a grating twitter." 



Dawson (Dawson and Bowles, 1909) evidently thought that the 

 notes are "not always distinctive. Particularly, there is one style 

 which cannot be distinguished from the commonest note of the 

 Hammond Flycatcher, sioitchoo, sweSchew, or unblushingly, zwee- 

 hew, sw^ehew, zzweet. Other notes, delivered sometimes singly and 

 sometimes in groups, are pisoS; stoit'oo, sweet, swit'oo; Swee, kutip, 

 kutip/ Hwit or hooit, softly." 



Bendire (1895) gives a slightly different version: "One of their 

 common call notes sounds like 'queet-queet,' and the alarm note ut- 

 tered when the nest is approached is something like that of Traill's 

 Flycatcher, 'whuish-whuish.' When pursuing each other during the 

 mating season, they sometimes give vent to a twittering note, not 

 unlike that of the Arkansas Flycatcher, and a sharp 'queet-queet' 

 is often heard while these restless little beings flit about in the low 

 willows, or when perched on some tall weed or coarse marsh-grass 

 stalk." 



Mr. Rathbun says in his notes : "It is one of the earliest birds to 

 begin to give its calls in the morning, and often these continue in 

 a rapid way for two or three hours, then gradually grow less; and 

 no matter whether the sun shines or it is raining, neither condition 



