ANDERSON — THE BIRDS OF IOWA. 289 



rey). B. H. Wilson reports it as "rare in Scott county: only one 

 seen, shot May 21, 1888." 



201. (466). Enipido?iax trailli [And.). Traill Flycatcher. 



The Traill Flycatcher is reported as a tolerably common sum- 

 mer resident in nearly all parts of the state from the early part of 

 May until September. Dr. Coues says (Key to N. A. Birds, 5th 

 Ed., 1903, i, p. 529): "Replaces alnorujji in western North Amer- 

 ica from the Plains to the Pacific; but specimens absolutely like 

 alnoruvt are found in the West even to British Columbia, and 

 others like trailli proper, east to Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, 

 etc., showing that in the Mississippi Valley at large no line can 

 be drawn between the two forms. . . . May usually be recog- 

 nized by its duller or more fuscous coloration, the quite lively oli- 

 vaceous and yellowish shades of abiorum being subdued or over- 

 cast; wing bars duller and less conspicuous; bill larger; tarsi 

 longer, the feet being nearh' as in virescens.'' W^illiam Brewster 

 (Auk, xii, 2, April, 1895) classes the Mississippi Valley birds 

 south of latitude 42° as trailli, and northern and eastern birds as 

 alnorum . 



E. E. Irons records the species as nesting quite commonly in 

 Pottawattamie county, in a valley or draw where the ground is 

 damp and spongy, in a dense growth of small willows, where he 

 took eggs at various dates from June 15 to Jul}- 14 (Iowa Orn., ii, 

 3, 1896, pp. 53-55). C. R. Ball reports it as a tolerably common 

 summer resident in Lyon county, nesting beginning June loth 

 and lasting about three weeks. John V. Crone states that in 1889 

 he took three sets from the same hedge, and undoubtedly from 

 the same birds. A fourth nest was found later with young — in 

 Buena Vista county (Iowa Orn., i, 2, 1895, pp. 31-32). 



In Winnebago county I have found the species rather common 

 in restricted localities and absent from others. I examined about 

 twenty-five occupied nests from 1894 to 1897, all of which were 

 placed in dense thickets of small wild willows along the bank of a 

 creek or a low piece of ground, at an average height of four feet 

 from the ground. The eggs number three or four, usually four, 

 and are deposited about the 25th of June. Accidents to the first 

 set will cause second sets to be laid during the early part of July. 

 The birds are very shy and are seldom surprised on the nest, the 



