Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds 



out of the south. It might be a leaf that is being blown about, 

 touched by the sunshine filtering through the trees, and partly 

 shaded by the young foliage casting its first shadows. 



Woodlands, through which small streams meander lazily, 

 inviting swarms of insects to their boggy shores, make ideal 

 hunting grounds for the Acadian flycatcher. It chooses a low 

 rather than a high, conspicuous perch, that other members of its 

 family invariably select; and from such a lookout it may be seen 

 launching into the air after the passing gnat — darting downward, 

 then suddenly mounting upward in its aerial hunt, the vigorous 

 clicks of the beak as it closes over its tiny victims testifying to 

 the bird's unerring aim and its hearty appetite. 



While perching, a constant tail-twitching is kept up; and a 

 faint, fretful " Tshee-kee, tshee-kee" escapes the bird when inac- 

 tively waiting for a dinner to heave in sight. 



In the Middle Atlantic States its peeping sound and the click- 

 ing of its particolored bill are infrequently heard in the village 

 streets in the autumn, when the shy and solitary birds are enticed 

 from the deep woods by a prospect of a more plentiful diet of 

 insects, attracted by the fruit in orchards and gardens. 



Never far from the ground, on two or more parallel branches, 

 the shallow, unsubstantial nest is laid. Some one has cleverly 

 described it as "a tuft of hay caught by the limb from a load 

 driven under it," but this description omits all mention of the 

 quantities of blossoms that must be gathered to line the cradle 

 for the tiny, pure white eggs. 



Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 



(Empidonax flaviventris) Flycatcher family 



Length—':, to 5.6 inches. About an inch smaller than the English 

 sparrow. 



Male — Rather dark, but true olive-green above. Throat and 

 breast yellowish olive, shading into pale yellow underneath, 

 including wing linings and under tail coverts. Wings have 

 yellowish bars. Whitish ring around eye. Upper part of 

 bill black, under part whitish or fiesh-colored. 



Female — Smaller, with brighter yellow under parts and more 

 decidedly yellow wing-bars. 



Range — North America, from Labrador to Panama, and westward 

 from the Atlantic to the plains. Winters in Central America. 



1S3 



