166 Purdie on the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. 



have been not less than one hundred and fifty feet. Fonr full-feathered 

 young were taken from the nest, only one of them being killed by the fall, 

 while one was entirely uninjured. The female parent had been shot a 

 few days before. 



Ictinia mississippiensis. Mississippi Kite. — This species is much 

 less common in the vicinity of Mount Carmel than in the prairie districts. 

 Several were seen about the river, however, as well as on the border of 

 "Waslilmrne Pond, in the Cypress Swamp. 



Catharistes atratus. Black Vulture. — Several solitary specimens 

 were seen in the Cypress Swamp, where it was evident from their actions 

 they were breeding. 



Ibis alba. "White Ibis. — An addition to the fauna of the State. A 

 flock of seven or eight individuals, all in the gray plumage of the young, 

 seen flying along the river about the 8th of May. 



THE NEST AND EGGS OF THE YELLOW-BELLIED FLY- 

 CATCHER {EMPIDONAX FLAVIVEXTRIS). 



BY II. A. PURDIE. 



Of the breeding habits of this bird published accounts are some- 

 what meagre and unsatisfactory. In Baird, Brewer, and Eidg- 

 ■way's " History of North American Birds," Dr. T. M. Brewer states 

 that he found a nest of this species at Grand Menan placed in the 

 fork of a low alder-bush. It was built loosely of soft bark-strips, 

 lined with light-colored grass, and much resembled the nest of the 

 common Indigo Bird. Other nests collected at Halifax were in low 

 bushes and composed of "stubble." The eggs were chalky-white, 

 unspotted, and more oblong than those of the Least Flycatcher 

 (Empidonax minimus). Eggs, however, found by Mr. G. A. Board- 

 man at Calais, Me., were dotted with reddish-brown. Dr. Coues, in 

 " Birds of the Northwest," simply .says: "The egg of flaviventrit is 

 pure white, unmarked, and not distinguishable from that of A', mini- 

 mus" But he writes me, "I know nothing of the nest and eggs 

 of E. flaviventrU, but what 1 have read." In "Ornithology of the 

 Clarence King Survey" (Vol IV, p. 544) Mr. Etidgway, in a foot-note 

 to the Western Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (A', dijfficilis), remarks : "It 

 is with little hesitation that we consider this bird as distinct spe- 

 cifically from E. fiaviventris. Nut only ate there very conspicuous 

 and constant differences in proportions and colors (especially the 



