all 
140 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
Tarsus lengthened, considerably longer than the middle toe, which is decidedly 
longer than the hind toe; bill variable; tail very slightly forked, even, or rounded, 
a little shorter only than the wings, which are considerably rounded, the first pri- 
mary much shorter than the fourth; head moderately crested; color olivaceous 
above, yellowish beneath; throat generally gray. 
EMPIDONAX TRAILLII. — Baird. 
The Traill’s Flycatcher. 
Muscicapa traillii, Audubon. Orn. Biog., I. (1882) 236; V. (1889) 426. 
Tyrannus traillii, Nuttall. Man., I. (2d ed., 1840) 323. 
DESCRIPTION. © 
Third quill longest, second scarcely shorter than fourth, first shorter than fifth, 
about thirty-five one-hundredths shorter than the longest; primaries about seventy- 
five one-hundredths of an inch longer than secondaries; tail even; upper parts dark 
olive-green, lighter under the wings, and duller and more tinged with ash on nape 
and sides of the neck; centre of the crown feathers brown; a pale yellowish-white 
ring (in some specimens altogether white) round the eye; loral feathers mixed 
with white; chin and throat white; the breast and sides of throat light-ash tinged 
with olive, its intensity varying in individuals, the former sometimes faintly 
tinged with olive; sides of the breast much like the back; middle of the belly nearly 
white; sides of the belly, abdomen, and the lower tail coverts sulphur-yellow; the 
quills and tail feathers dark-brown, as dark (if not more so) as these parts in 
C. virens ; two olivaceous yellow-white bands on the wing, formed by the tips of the 
first and second coverts, succeeded by a brown one, the edge of the first primary 
and of secondaries and tertials a little lighter shade of the same; the outer edge of 
the tail feathers like the back, that of the lateral one rather lighter; bill above dark- 
brown, dull-brownish beneath. 
Length, nearly six inches; wing, two and ninety one-hundredths; tail, two and 
sixty one-hundredths. 
Hab. — Eastern United States, and south to Mexico. 
This bird is occasionally found as a spring and autumn 
visitor in New England, arriving about the 15th or 20th of 
May. In its habits, it resembles the Least Flycatcher (Z. 
minimus), as it does also in its plumage: in fact, these two 
birds and the Green-crested Flycatcher have been so much 
mistaken for each other by different naturalists, the confu- 
sion in whose descriptions is so great, that it requires a very 
careful examination to identify either of these birds per- 
fectly and accurately. I have had no opportunities for 
observing the habits of the bird now before us, and can add 
nothing to its history. Thompson, in his ‘“¢ Vermont Birds,” 
