LEAST FLYCATCHER 223 



the Flycatchers triumphed and put the cowardly horde to ignominious 

 flight." 



Dr. Friedmann (1929) says that the least flycatcher is "an uncom- 

 mon victim" of the cowbird ; he found only 10 records. 



Fall. — After the breeding season is over and the young are strong 

 on the wing, old and young scatter about and mingle with the early 

 migrating warblers and other small birds. During the last week 

 in August the southward migration from Canada and the Northern 

 States begins, numbers decrease during the first half of September, 

 and by the end of that month most of these flycatchers have left 

 their northern homes. The migration is mainily southwestward 

 through Texas and into Mexico and Central America, where they 

 make their winter home. 



Winter. — Dickey and van Rossem (1938) say that the least fly- 

 catcher is "common in fall, winter, and spring throughout the Arid 

 Lower Tropical Zone" in El Salvador, between September 3 and 

 April 22. "The species is most numerous below 2,500 feet, and rare 

 and local as high as 3,500 feet. * * * The least flycatcher occurs 

 over the same country occupied by Empidonax fl(wiventris. The two 

 are present in about the same numbers, relatively, and both are found 

 in similar situations, that is to say, undergrowth in the woods, 

 mimosa thickets, shrubbery along watercourses, or in the top foliage 

 of low, open woods." 



William Beebe (1905) reports, in Mexico, "a small, loose flock 

 observed several times near camp in a lower barranca; the only 

 flycatchers which seemed to remain together in any association 

 which could be called a flock." 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — North and Central America, chiefly east of the Rocky 

 Mountains. 



Breeding range. — The least flycatcher nests north to southwestern 

 Mackenzie (Willow Lake River and Fort Rae) ; northern Alberta 

 (Smith Landing and the Athabaska Delta) ; Saskatchewan (Lac lie 

 a la Crosse and Reindeer River) ; Manitoba (Oxford Lake) ; Ontario 

 (Lac Seul and Moose Factory) ; southern Quebec (St. Joachim and 

 Restigouche Valley) ; Nova Scotia (Baddeck) ; and Prince Edward 

 Island (Malpeaqne. East to Nova Scotia (Baddeck and Halifax) ; 

 Maine (Machias and Portland) ; Massachusetts (Cape Cod) ; Connec- 

 ticut (New Haven) ; New York (New York City) ; southeastern Penn- 

 sylvania (Hamburg) ; western Maryland (Accident) ; West Virginia 

 (Sago and Cranberry Glades) ; western Virginia (Blacksburg) ; and 

 western North Carolina (Piney Creek, Rock Mountain, and Waynes- 



