FAMILY Tyrannide. 
The trunk of an old apple tree behind my summer cot- 
tage is fairly riddled with holes which are the work of this 
Sapsucker. As arule he is ‘‘on the job” early in the New 
Hampshire spring before I am on the ground, but I was 
once early enough to catch him as we say, red-handed! 
His voice was cracked and he greeted me with a few maud- . 
lin clacks expressive of sappy sentimentality—alas, when 
birds and men drink too much! JI wondered whether he 
would be able to find his way home—if he had any. But 
he flew off on balanced wings so it was presumable that 
the fermented ‘‘stuff’? had not completely befuddled his 
head! Occasionally a Sapsucker will so gorge himself 
with sap that one may pick him up in the hand. 
Family Tyrannide. 
Alder This is one of the northern Flycatchers 
Biycatcher belonging to the Canadian zone, a rather 
Empidonax z 
trailli alnorum are migrant, therefore, south of central 
L.5.75 inches New Hampshire excepting locally in moun- 
May 1oth tain regions. The Alder Flycatcher is some- 
what common in swampy tracts through and north of the 
White, Franconia, and Adirondack Mountains, in the valley 
of the Pemigewasset River as far south at least as Wood- 
stock, and in the valley of the Connecticut as far as Hanover. 
The upper parts of this species are tinged with an olive tone 
not present in the Chebec or the Phoebe; the wing-bars 
and edges of the wing pale brownish gray, under parts pale 
gray tinged with yellowish cream on the belly, the wings 
and tail sepia; lower mandible light flesh-colored. Nest, 
usually in a low alder, or in a swamp rose bush about three 
feet from the ground, or less, built of coarse grasses, plant 
down, and fibres, lined with softer materials, pine needles, 
etc. Egg cream white flecked with cinnamon brown rather 
more plentifully about the larger end. This is a sub- 
species of Traill’s Flycatcher (a western species), and its 
breeding ground is from central Alaska, central Quebec, 
and Newfoundland, south to Montana, southern Ontario, 
northern New Jersey, southern New York (at Nyack), 
northwestern Connecticut, eastern Massachusetts, central 
New Hampshire, and Maine. It frequents moist clearings 
274 
