TYBANNID^ — TYBANNIN.E : TYRANT FLYCATCHERS. 443 



3»0. E. ham'mondi. (To Dr. W. A. Hammond, U. S. A.) Hammond's FLYCATCHER. DiUTY 

 LiTTLK Flycatcher. Above, o\iw('-gray, decidedly grayer or even asliy on the fore-parts ; 

 tlic whole throat and breast almost continuously olive-gray but little paler than the back, the 

 belly alone more or less decidedly yellowish ; wing-markings and eye-ring dull soiled whitish ; 

 bill very small, and extremely narrow, being hardly or not 0.20 wide at the nostrils ; this distin- 

 guishes tlie bird frojii all but 7nimmus aud obscurus; under mandible usually blackish; tail usu- 

 ally decidedly forked, more so than in other species (though in all of them it varies from slightly 

 rounded to slightly emargiuate) ; outer tail-feather usually whitish-ecZr/ed externally (a chanvcter 

 often shown by trailli aud minimus), but not decidedly w/w^e. About the size of minimus ; 

 wings and tail relatively longer. Plains to the Pacific, U. S., and British Am. This is the 

 Western representative of minimus, but is tangibly distinct ; the general tone of coloration is 

 heavy, fall specimens in particular giving somewhat the effect of a dirty fiaviventris; the tiny 

 bill is a good mark. Nesting substantially like minimus; eggs white, unmarked. Note " a 

 soft pit." 



391. E. obseu'rus. (Lat. obscurus, d&rk.) Wright's Flycatcher. Gray Little Flycatcher. 

 Colors not very tangibly difterent from those of trailli or minimus, but outer iveb of outer tail- 

 feather abruptly white in decided contrast. General tone quite gray; gray below quite across 

 breast, giving the effect there of Contopus richardsoni; under mandible obscured ; eye-ring and 

 wing-edgings quite whitish. General dimensions approaching those of acadicus, owing to 

 length of wings and tail. Length doubtless up to 6.00, and extent to 9.50 ; wing 2.66-3.00 ; 

 tail 2.50-2.75 ; tarsi about 0.75 ; bill about 0.50, extremely narrow (much as in Sayiornis 

 fusca), its width at the nostrils only about \ its length. The bird looks singularly like the 

 Western Contopus, though of course iunnediately seen to be Empidonax. Rocky and other 

 mts. of the West, N. to 49°, in Woodland, groves and thickets. To complete the analogies 

 between the Eastern and Western Empidonaces, this may be considered to represent acadicus. 

 Nesting, however, substantially as in minimus: a neat, compact, deep-cupped nest in crotch of 

 a sapling, and eggs 3-4, white, unmarked, but large, 0.75 X 0.58. Note " a weird sweer," " a 

 soft liquid whit." (E. obscurus, E. ivrightii, Baird, 1858 ; but qu. Tyr. obscura Sw. 1827?) 



124. MITRE'PHANES. (Gr. /mVp?;, miYre, a head-dress ; ^aiVw, I appear.) Little Buff Fly- 

 catchers. Coronal feathers and rictal bristles longer than in Empidonax, and general cast of 

 the plumage buffy or fulvous rather than olivaceous ; otherwise (our species at any rate) not 

 different from Empidonax. Several Mexican species, one reaching our border. (Mitrephanes 

 Coues, 1882, vice Mitrephorus SCL., 1859, preoccupied.) 



392. M. ful'vifrons palles'cens. (Lat. fulvifrons, fulvous-fronted ; pallescens, growing pale.) 

 Little Buff-breasted Flycatcher. Above, dull grayish-brown tinged with olive, par- 

 ticularly on the back ; below, pale fulvous, strongest across the breast, whitening on the belly; 

 no fulvous on the forehead ; sides of head light brownish-olive ; wings and tail dusky, outer 

 web of outer tail-feathers, edges of inner primaries except at the base, and tips of wing-coverts, 

 whitish ; iris brow'n; bill yellow below, black above ; feet black. Length 4.75 ; extent 7-33 ; 

 wing 2.12; tail 2.00; tarsus 0.55 ; middle toe and claw 0.45 ; bill 0.40. New Mexico, Ari- 

 zona, and southward. {Empidonax ptjgmeeus Coues, Ibis, 1865, p. 537 ; Mitrephorus palles- 

 cens Coues, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1866, p. 63. My original specimens, affording the descriptions 

 quoted, and the first known to have been taken in the United States, do not appear to be 

 specifically distinct from Muscicapa fulvifrons of Giraud (B. of Tex., 1841, pi. 2, f. 2) ; they 

 are clean spring birds, and the species is more fulvous in fall plumage.) 



125. ORNITH'IUM. (Gr. opviBiov, ornithion, dimin. of opvts, a bird.) Beardless Flycatchers. 

 General aspect of Empidonax, but remarkably distinguished by the parine shape of the bill, 

 and almost entire absence of the rictal bristles so conspicuous in most genera of Tyrannida;, 

 though a few slight ones may be seen on close inspection. Bill much shorter than head, stout, 

 compressed, not depressed as usual iu Tyrannidee, with high-ridged arched culmen and scarcely 



