374 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



This species was found breeding at Fort Eesolution, latitude 62°, by Mr. 

 Kennicott, the nest being in an alder-bush, and about five feet from tlie 

 ground. It was also found nesting in the same locality by Mr. Ross and by 

 Mr. Lockhart. Its nest was found at Lake Manitobah by Mr. McTavish, 

 and at Fort Simpson by Mr. Eoss. 



This species has been gradually undergoing certain modifications of habits 

 and manners in consequence of its contact with civilization and becoming 

 familiarized to the society of man. In nothing is this made more apparent 

 than in the construction of its nests. Those made on the edge of woodlands 

 or in remote orchards are wrought almost entirely of fine deciduous bark, 

 hempen fibres of vegetables, feathers, dried fragments of insect cocoons, and 

 other miscellaneous substances felted and impacted togetlier ; within this is 

 a lining of fine strips of vegetable bark, woody fibres, fine lichens, and soft 

 downy feathers. In some the lining is exclusively of fine pine leaves, in 

 others with the seeds or pappus of compositaceous plants. The nests are 

 always quite small, rarely measuring more than three inches in diameter or 

 two in height. Those made in the vicinity of dwellings indicate their neigh- 

 borhood by the variety of miscellaneous and convenient materials, such as 

 bits of paper, rags, cotton, wool, and the larger and more conspicuous feath- 

 ers of the poultry-yard. Where raw cotton was abundantly provided, I have 

 known this material, strengthened with a few straws and woody fibres, with 

 a lining of feathers, constitute the whole substance of the nest. 



One nest, constructed in a thick tamarack swamp in Wisconsin, is com- 

 posed of a dense, impacted mass of a dirty white vegetable wool, inter- 

 twined at the base with shreds of bark, vegetable stems, and small black 

 roots. The inner rim and frame of the nest are made of blacky shining root- 

 lets, intermingled with slender leaves and stems of dry sedges, and lined 

 with the pappus of a small composite plant and a few feathers. 



The eggs of this species are pure white, never, so far as I am aware, spot- 

 ted, of a rounded-oval shape, nearly equally obtuse at either end, and meas- 

 uring about .60 of an inch in length by .50 in breadth. 



Empidonax acadicus, Baird. 



SMALL GREEN-CRESTED FLYCATCHER. 



i Muscicapa acadica, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 947. — Latham, Index Orn. II, 1790, 

 489. — ViEiLLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 71 (from Latham). — Aud. Orn. Biog. II, 

 1834, 256; V, 1839, 429, pL cxliv. — Ib. Birds Am. I, 1840, 221, pi. Ixii. — Nuttall, 

 Man. I, 1832, 208. — Giraud, Birds L. Island, 1844, 40. Muscicapa querula, Wilson, 

 Am. Orn. II, 1810, 77, pi. xiii, f. 8 (not of Vieillot). '^ Platijrlujnchus virescens, 

 ViEiLLOT." Tyranmda acadica, Richardson, ? Bon. List. Tyrannus acadica, Nut- 

 tall, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 320. Empidonax acadicus, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 

 197. — ScLATER, Catal. 1862, 229. — Samuels, 143. 



Sp. Char. 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. 



