BIEDS — TYEANNINAE — EMPIDONAX ACADICUS. 



197 



EMPIDONAX ACADICUS, B a i r d . 



Small Green-crested Flycatcher. 



7Jausdcttpa acadica, Gmeliu, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 947— LixniM, Index Orn. II, 1790, 489.— Vieillot, Ois. Am. 



Sept. I, 1807, 71, (from Latham).— Addubon, Orn. Eiog. II, 1834, 256 : V, 1839, 429 ; pi. 



144 — Ie. Birds Amer. I, 1840, 221 ; pi. 62.— Nuttall, Man. I, 1832,208.— Giradd, Birds L. 



Island, 1844, 40. 

 Muscicapa querula, Wilson, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 77 ; pi. xiii, f. 3, (not of Vieillot.) 

 ** Platyrkynchus virescens^ Vieillot." 

 Tyrannida acadica, Richardson, ?Bon. List, 

 Tyrannus acadica, Nuttall, Man. I, 2d ed. 1840, 320. 



Sp. Ch. — The second and third quills are longest, and about equal ; the fourth a little shorter ; the first about equal to the 

 fifth, and about .35 less than the longest. Tail even. The upper parts, with sides of the head and neck, olive green ; the crown 

 very little if any darker. A yellowish white ring round the eye. The sides of the body under the wings like the back, but 

 fainter olive ; a tinge of the same across the breast ; the chin, throat, and middle of the belly white ; the abdomen, lower tail 

 and wing coverts, and sides of the body not covered by the wings pale greenish yellow. Edges of the first primary, seconda- 

 ries, and tertials margined with dull yellowish white, most broadly on the latter. Two transverse bands of pale yellowish 

 across the wings formed by the tips of the secondary and primary coverts, succeeded by a brown one. Tail light brown, mar- 

 gined externally like the back. Upper mandible light brown above ; pale yellow beneath. In autumn the lower parts are 

 more yellow. Length, 5.65 ; wing, 3.00 ; tail, 2.75. 



Hab. — Eastern United States to the Mississippi. 



In this species the wing is rather long and quite acute, reaching about to the middle of the 

 tail ; the primaries about .90 of an inch shorter than the secondaries. The proportions do not 

 vary much from that described, although the third quill is sometimes longest. The tail is 

 almost exactly even, a little rounded on the sides. The tarsi are rather long, exceeding the 

 middle toe. 



There is generally a tinge of reddish in the yellow bands of the wings, although most marked 

 in autumn specimens. The under wing coverts are pale sulphur yellow, and the tertials and 

 secondaries have the basal portion of the inner web entirely sulphur yellow. The yellow edges 

 to the lesser quills do not extend as far as the wing coverts^ but leave a well defined band of 

 brown just below the yellowish. 



This species is very similar to E. traillii, but the upper parts are of a brighter and more 

 uniform olive green, much like that of Vireo olivaceus. The feathers of the crown lack the 

 darker centre. There is less of the olivaceous ash across the breast. The bands across the 

 wing are brighter yellow. There is much more yellow at the base of the lesser quills. The 

 wings are longer, both proportionally and absolutely. The primaries exceed the secondaries by 

 nearly an inch, instead of by only about .70 ; the proportions of the quills are much the same. 



List of specimens. 



