LEAST FLYCATCHER 221 



composites, where, with the Warblers, it finds abundant insect food 

 while the Sparrows feast on the seeds. Tlie top of a rigid mullein 

 stalk or wild sunflower furnishes a suitable vantage-point from which 

 to sally out after the flying insects that constitute the bulk of its 

 food."" 



About its nest the least flycatcher is very tame and brave, often 

 allowing a close approach and making a brave attempt at defense. 

 Professor Brooks tells me of a remarkable case of close sitting; he 

 and his companions sawed down a small hemlock in which one of 

 these flycatchers was incubating its eggs; "the parent bird remained 

 on the nest until the tree had fallen, only leaving it when" they 

 "approached the nest." Dr. Koberts (1932) tells of one that he 

 stroked and then lifted her off her set of heavily incubated eggs. 



Voice. — During spring and early summer, or until its nesting 

 activities absorb too much of its time and attention, the least fly- 

 catcher is a noisy bird, and its voice is heard almost constantly, 

 especially during the early morning, when it is one of the first birds 

 to be heard, and toward evening. But after the end of June its 

 vocal efforts slow down, and after the middle of July it is seldom 

 heard. By far the commonest and most characteristic note, from 

 vrhich one of its popular names is derived, is the emphatic 2-syllable 

 chebee, strongly accented on the last syllable, given with much 

 vehemence, and accompanied with an upward jerk of the head and a 

 flirt of the tail, as if asserting his independence and authority over 

 his domain. This note is so much a part of the bird that it is often 

 combined with some of its other notes, which are not numerous and 

 not so often heard. Mr. DuBois writes to me that, this note sounds 

 to him more like te-hic, which holds true for all these flycatchers that 

 he has heard anywhere. Others have spelled the syllables slightly 

 differently. 



It also has a short call note, or alarm note, that sounds like whit. 

 Dr. Dickey w^rites to me that "at mating time and around disturbed 

 nests they cause the underwoods to resound with noises that sound 

 like speetz and syerlc?'' Miss Campbell tells me that, at the nest she 

 was watching, "twice, once at noon and another time in the evening, 

 the male sang an unusually melodious warbling song and the female 

 on the nest responded by soft murmurings and rhythmic movements." 

 Forbush (1927) refers to "a flight-song (?) a 'twittering warble' ". E. 

 A. Samuels (1883) says that the bird sometimes changes his chebee 

 note into '■''chebec-trree-treo^ chebec-treee-cheuP Dr. Chapman (1912) 

 writes: "In crescendo passages he literally rises to the occasion, and 

 on trembling wings sings an absurd chebee tooral-ooral^ chebee^ tooral- 

 oordl., with an earnestness deserving better results." H. D. IMinot 



