EMPIDONAX PUSILLUS. 539 



EmPIDONAX PUSILLUS.' 

 Little FIycatcli«r; Traill's Flycatcher. 



[Pish' -c-ivah' -c-tse of the Sliosliones.) 



? riatyrhyyichus pmillus, Swainson, Syuop. Mex. Birds, Pliilos. Mag., 1, 1827,366. 

 Empidonax piisillus, Cabanis, Joum. fiir Oru., 1855, 480.— Baird, Birds N. Am., 



1858, 194; Cat. N. Am. Birds, 185'J, No. 141.— B. B. & 11., Uist. N. Am. B., 



II, 1874, 366, pi. XLIV, fig. 9. 

 Empidonax traiUii var. pusillus, CouES, Key, 1872, 175; Check List, 1873, No. 



257a.— Henshaw, 1875, 356. 

 Empidonax traillii. b. pwaillus, CouES, Birds N.W., 1874, 252. 

 Empidonax traillii, Coopek, Orii. Cal., I, 1870, 327. 



This is the most abundant and generally distributed of the Empkhnaces, 

 being, so far as known, the only one of the genus occurring across the 

 entire breadth of the continent." It prefers the lower portions of the 

 country, however, its favorite haunts being the willows of the river- valleys, 

 and we did not find it higher up among the mountains tlian an altitude of 

 about 7,000 feet, where it was confined to the willow thickets bordering 

 the streams flowing across the parks. In the environs of Sacramento City 

 it was, next to Tijrannus verticalls, the commonest of the Flycatchers, and 

 was as characteristic of the willow copses as Contopus richardsoni was 

 of the oak groves. In its manners, this species is more lively than its 

 mountain relatives, E. obscunis and E. hammondi, especially after sunset, 

 when they chase one another among the bushes, twittering as they fly, 

 frequently perching on a high twig and with swelled throats uttering their 

 not unmusical note of tivip' utawah' , which is translated by the people 

 of Parley's Park as "pretty dear," by which name it was there fomiliar to 

 every one. 



'We are unaWe to appreciate diflereuces between western and eastern ("<m/Wn") 

 specimens of this species sufficient to constitute the latter a recognizable variety. It 

 is only those specimens from the drj'er and more scantily wooded localitiesof the West 

 which are paler and grayer colored than the average of eastern examples, and even 

 tlven the difference is not comparable to that existing between E. flaviventris and E. 

 difficilis. 



"As stated above, we consider j)«s(7ij(,9 and ^'■traillii" to be in every respect 

 identical, while we hold flaviventris and difficilis to be specifically distinct. 



