OF NEW ENGLAND. 291 
with no buffish suffusion, etc.?] Outer web of the outermost tail- 
feather (and possibly, but not probably, more of the tail), white. 
(c). On the twelfth day of May, 1875, whilst walking about 
my father’s place near Boston, I caught sight of a small fly- 
catcher in some shrubbery which stood near an open field, and 
which consisted of barberry-bushes, a white birch, etc., while 
near this place were several apple-trees, pines, isolated oaks, 
and other trees. There, soon after noon, I saw the subject of 
this memoir. By his habits, his erected crown-feathers, and 
his style of coloration, I knew him to be a flycatcher; on ob- 
serving his size and even tail, I ascribed him to the genus 
Empidonax (or a closely allied genus) ; and, on noticing that 
his tail was edged with white to the depth of an eighth of an 
inch or more, when closed, I believed him to be a new species. 
In Dr. Coues’ “‘ Key to North American Birds,” but two fly- 
catchers, ever found in the United States, are mentioned, who 
have the outermost web of the tail white. Of these, Hmpido- 
nax obscurus, Wright’s Flycatcher (a bird of the south-western 
United States), is much larger than pygmcus—for by chance 
a Pewee alighted beside the latter, and I noticed then that the 
Pewee seemed to be at least two inches longer, if not more. 
On the other hand, I did not observe in E. pygmceus the buftish 
suffusion, and yellow lower mandible, said to be the character- 
istics of Mitrephorus fulvifrons, var. pallescens, a bird of the 
same size, but belonging to a Mexican genus (though first 
called by Dr. Coues ‘‘Empidonax pygmeus, Buff-breasted Fly- 
catcher,” when obtained by him at Fort Whipple, Arizona). 
It hardly seems possible that the Buff-breasted Flycatcher 
should have strayed to Massachusetts, though similar instances 
of wandering have occurred before among birds. I feel quite 
confident that the bird in question is a new species, probably 
belonging to the genus Empidonaz, though possibly to Mitre- 
phorus, or even to a new genus (to be called Muscaccipiter). 
After trying to identify my bird, and having hurriedly, and 
yet with as much care as possible, endeavored to learn all 
the details of his coloration, I proceeded to study his habits. 
For about three minutes I watched the bird (for he was not 
