628 SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSERES - CLAMA TORES. 



Belly not decidedly yellow. 



Width of bill at nostrils more than half the length of culmen. 



Largest : length 6.00 or more. Olive-green. Eastern virescens 



Medium : length COO or less. Olive-brown. 



Western trailli 



Eastern trailli alnorum 



SmaUest. Length 5.50 or less. Eastern minimus 



Width of bill at nostrils less than half the length of culmen. Western. 



Outer web of outer tail-feather not decidedly wliitish ... hammondi 



Outer web of outer tail-feather decidedly whitish. 



Western U. S ivrighti 



Lower California griseus 



B. MiTREPHANEs. One buff-bellied species and one subspecies. 



Texas Jidvifrons 



New Mexico and Arizona J'ulvifrons pygmwus 



Observe that the eggs are speckled only in the "Acadian" and "Traill" and yeUow-beUied groups of species — 

 white in all the others. 



E. vires'cens. (Lat. virescens, growiug green, greenish.) Small Green-crested or so- 

 called "Acadian" Flycatcher. Adult $^: Above, oYwe-green, clear, light, continuous 

 and uniform (though the crown may show rather darker, owing to dusky centres of the 

 slightly lengthened, erectile feathers) ; below, whitish, olive-shaded on sides and nearly 

 across breast, yellowish -washed on belly, flanks, crissum, and axillars ; wings dusky, inner 

 quills edged, and coverts tipped, with taivny yellow; all quills whitish-edged internally ; tail 

 dusky, olive-glossed, unmarked; a tawny eye-ring; feet and upper mandible brown, under 

 mandible pale. In midsummer, rather darker ; in early fall brighter and especially more yel- 

 lowish below ; in the young, wing-markings more fulvous, general plumage slightly bufi"y- 

 suff"used ; when very young, said to be mottled transversely with pale ochraceous. Largest : 

 5.75-6.2.T — rather over than under 6.00 ; extent rather over than under 9.50 ; wing 2.75-3.00 

 (even 3.12) ; tail 2.50-2.75 ; bill nearly or quite 0.50, about 0.25 wide at nostrils, broad and flat, 

 like a Pewee's; tarsus 0.66; middle toe and claw 0.50; point of wing reaching nearly an inch 

 beyond secondaries; 2d, 3d, and 4th quills nearly equal and much (^ inch or more) longer 

 than 1st and 5th, which about equal each other ; 1st mucJi longer than 6th. The ? near the 

 lesser of all the dimensions given. Eastern U. S., southerly, scarcely known in New Enrjland, 

 where it is rare or casual as far N. as Massachusetts ; N. in the interior to southern New York, 

 southern Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, rarely Manitoba ; W. to the limit of trees in Ne- 

 braska, Kansas, Indian Territory, and Texas ; S. in winter through Mexico to Ecuador ; Cuba ; 

 an abundant bird of woodland in our middle districts in summer; migratory; breeds through- 

 out its N. Am. range, mostly in June, but in May in the South ; winters extralitnital. This 

 is the Empidonax which most resembles Contopus virens, and is readily recognized by the 

 points of size and shape, without regarding coloration ; it has a harsh abrupt note of two sylla- 

 bles. Nest in trees, low or at no great elevation, seini-peusile in horizontal fork of a slender 

 bough, thin and open-worked, shallow, flat, saucer-shaped, hardly 3.00 in diameter outside, 

 and 2.00 or less deep, with a cavity about 2.00 X ] -00. Eggs 2-4, mostly 3, creamy or pale 

 buff, boldly spotted with reddish and darker browns, especially about the larger end, like a 

 Wood Pewee's; size from 0.78 X 0.56 down to 0.67 X 0.50, averaging about 0.73 X 0.53. 

 {Muscicapa subviridis Bartram, 1791 ; Empidonax subviridis Coues, 1882. Muscicapa 

 querula WiLS. Am. Orn. 1810, ii, 77, pi. 13, f. 3, nee Yieill. 1807; Platyrhynchos virescens 

 Yieill. Nouv. Diet. 1818, p. 22 ; Empidonax virescens Brewst. Auk, Apr. 1895, p. 157; 

 A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, No. 465. Musdcapa acadica Aud. B. Am. 8vo ed. 1840, i, 221, 

 pi. 62, nee Gm. 1788, Lath. 1790; Empidonax acadicus Bd. B. N. A. 1858, p. 197, and of 

 all previous eds. of the Key, as of most writers since 1858. The long-established name acadi- 

 cus, geographically false for a bird which never reaches Acadia (Nova Scotia), can fortu- 

 nately be done away with by rules in favor of the entirely appropriate designation virescens, if 



