388 THE DRATEL HE WeAm GEE Re 
These Flycatchers in nesting time are very confiding and very devoted 
parents. One may sometimes touch the sitting bird, and, when off, she 
flutters about very close to the intruder, sneezing violently and snipping her 
mandibles like fairy scissors. 
TRAILS BEYCARCH ER: 
A. O. U. No. 466. Empidonax traillii (Aud.). 
Synonyms.—LittLe FrycatcHer. Lirrne WerstTeERN FLYCATCHER. 
Description.—Plumage of upperparts very similar to that of E. difficilis, but 
olive inclining to brownish; wing-bars usually paler, more whitish; outer web 
of outer rectrix pale grayish white; sides of head and neck decidedly browner ; 
underparts everywhere paler, nearly white on throat; breast sordid, scarcely 
olivaceous ; lower abdomen and crissum pale primrose yellow ; bend of wing yellow 
flecked with dusky; a faint eye-ring pale olive-gray. Bill black above, light 
brownish below (not so light in life as &. difficilis). Young: much as in preced- 
ing species, but averaging browner; more yellow below than adult. Length 5.50- 
6.00 (139.7-152.4); wing 2.76 (70); tail 2.25 (57); bill .49 (12.5); tarsus 
65 (16.5). 
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; olivaceous coloration; not so yellow 
below as preceding species ; brush-haunting habits; note a smart swit’choo. 
Nesting.—Nest: a rather bulky but neatly-turned cup of plant-fibres, bark- 
strips, grass, etc., carefully lined with fine grasses; placed three to ten feet up, in 
crotch of bush or sapling of lowland thicket or swamp. Eggs: 3 or 4, not certainly 
distinguishable from those of preceding species. Av. size, .70 x .54 (17.8 x 13.7). 
Season: June; one brood. 
General Range.—Western North America, breeding north to southern 
Alaska (Dyea), “east, northerly, to western portion of Great Plains, much 
farther southerly, breeding in lowa(?), Missouri, southern Illinois, and 
probably elsewhere in central Mississippi Valley”; south in winter over Mexico 
to Colombia, ete. 
Range in Washington.—Imperiectly made out—summer resident in thickets 
at lower levels thruout(?) the State. 
Authorities.—Empidonax pusillus Cabanis, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. 
IDS Teste}, jo, Os, Mortal, (US, ito. (CAN))e (Clee Iles IDs Ika 18, IB: 
Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. B. E. 
DISCRIMINATION is the constant effort of those who would study the 
Empidonaces, the Little Flycatchers. Comparing colors, Traill’s gives an im- 
pression of brownness, where the Western is yellowish green, Hammond's 
blackish, and Wright’s grayish dusky. These distinctions are not glaring, but 
