322 THE YEELOW-BEELIED) FLYCATCHER: 
upon her eggs with a soft titter of content. But why not? Who could wish to 
harm so gentle a creature ? 
In no way do birds exhibit greater diversity of character than in their 
treatment of intruders. Some will flutter about you savagely when the nest 
is being examined, and snap their mandibles as tho wishing you were only the 
size of a horse-fly ; others sit at a distance and utter a mournful plaint; while 
others still disappear from view entirely. 
That the Wood Pewee is a bird of spirit the red squirrel can testify. I 
once saw one of those arch-destroyers trying to make his way along a walnut 
limb which was evidently forbidden territory. A Pewee had him under fire, 
and every time his head came round above the limb she set upon him fiercely. 
If the viciously clicking mandibles did not succeed in finding one of those evil 
eyes, the flashing fire from the bird’s eye must certainly have singed his 
whiskers. No telling what would have happened had there not been one who 
intervened. 
No. 141. 
YELUOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER: 
A. O. U. No. 463. Empidonax flaviventris Baird. 
Description.—Adult: Above dull olive-green, shading on sides and breast 
into greenish yellow of under parts, the latter shade purest (sulphur-yellow) 
on belly; wings and tail fuscous; the middle and greater coverts tipped, and the 
inner quills edged with light greenish yellow or whitish; secondaries abruptly 
yellow-edged on terminal half of outer webs; tip of wing formed by second, third 
and fourth primaries; the first shorter than the fifth; a yellow eye-ring; bill dark 
above, pale below; feet blackish. Jmmatwre: Similar, but duller above; brighter 
yellow below; the wing-bands buffy or ochraceous. Length 5.00-5.75 (127.- 
146.1) ; av. of ten Columbus specimens: wing 2.67 (67.8) ; tail 2.02 (51.2) ; bill 
from nostril .32 (8.1) ; width at base .31 (7.9). 
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; general yellowness,—the constancy and 
strength of the yellow is distinctive. 
Nesting.—Not known to breed in Ohio. Nest, chiefly of moss, placed on 
or near ground, in upturned roots, under fallen logs, or in moss-bank. Eggs, 
4, creamy-white, spotted and speckled, chiefly about larger end, with cinnamon- 
brown. Av. size, .67 x .52 (17. x 13.2). 
General Range.—Eastern North America, west to the Plains, and from 
southern Labrador south through eastern Mexico to Panama, breeding from the 
northern States northward. Casual in Greenland. 
Range in Ohio.—Probably not uncommon during migrations. Owing to its 
retiring habits few observers have reported it. c 
