372 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Empidonax minimus, Baird. 



LEAST FLYCATCHER. 



Tijrannula minima, Wm. M. and S. F. Baird, Pr. A. N. Sc. I, July, 1843, 284. —-Ib. 

 Silliin. Am. Jour. Sc. July, 1844. — AuD. Birds Am. VII, 1844, 343, pi. ccccxci. 

 Empidonax minimus, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 195. — Sclater, Catal. 1862, 229. 

 — Samuels, 141. 



Sp. Char. Second quill longest ; third and fourth but little shorter ; fifth a little less ; 

 first intermediate between fifth and sixth. Tail even. Above olive-brown, darker on 

 the head, becoming paler on the rump and upper tail-coverts. The middle of the back 

 most strongly olivaceous. The nape (in some individuals) and sides of the head tinged 

 with ash. A ring round the eye and some of the loral feathers white ; the chin and 

 throat white. The sides of the throat and across the breast dull ash, the color on the 

 latter sometimes nearly obsolete ; sides of the breast similar to the back, but of a lighter 

 tint ; middle of the belly very pale 3'ellowish-white, turning to pale sulphur-yellow on 

 the sides of the belly, abdomen, and lower tail-coverts. Wings brown ; two narrow white 

 bands on the wing, formed by the tips of the first and second coverts, succeeded by one of 

 brown. The edge of the first primary, and of the secondaries and tertials, white. Tail 

 rather lighter brown, edged externally like the back. Feathers narrow, not acuminate, 

 with the ends rather blunt. In autumn the white parts are strongly tinged with yellow. 

 Length, about 5.00; wing, 2.65; tail, 2.50. Young with ochraceous, instead of grayish- 

 white wing-bands. 



Hab. Eastern United States to Missouri Plains ; Mirador ; Orizaba ; Belize. Locali- 

 ties : Oaxaca (Scl. 1859, 384) ; Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 122) ; Orizaba (Scl. Ibis, I, 

 441, and Mus. S. I.) ; Coban, Escuintla, Dueiias (Scl. Catal. 1862, 229); San Antonio, 

 Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 474, common, summer). 



Habits. Tlie distinctness of this species from the acadica, with which it 

 had been previously confused, was first pointed out by the Messrs. Baird in 

 1843, but it was some time before the complete differences between the two 

 species and their distinctive habits and distribution were fully appreciated 

 and known. This species, one of the commonest birds in the State of 

 Massachusetts, where the E. acadica is nearly or quite unknown, was sup- 

 posed by Mr. Nuttall to be the latter species, and under that name is treated 

 and its history given. Wilson contributed to cause this error. For although 

 his account of the acadica is in part correct, it is not wholly free from error, 

 and probably the nest and eggs described as belonging to the latter were 

 those of the minima. The discovery, by Professor Baird, of the nest and 

 eggs of the acadica, and their marked difference in all respects from those of 

 the minima, which had hitherto been attributed to it, at once pointed out 

 the errors that had prevailed, and permitted the real facts to be appreciated. 



This bird is an abundant species throughout Eastern North America, occur- 

 ring as a migrant in all the States between the Atlantic and the Great Plains, 

 and breeding from the 40th parallel northward over an extent not fully defined, 

 but probably to within the Arctic Circle. It occurs in great numbers from 

 Maine to Nebraska, and, unlike all the other species of this genus, is not shy 



