l6o Brkwster, Nofes on Cer/nt'n Flyrafrher^. Fa ril 



"prairie lands of the Arkansas river" (Orn. Biog., Vol. I, 1831, 

 p. 236). Fortunately three of Audubon's specimens, given by him 

 many years ago to Professor Baird and labeled by Mr. Ridgway as 

 the types of E. traiUii, are preserved in the National Museum. 

 They are numbered respectively 960, 1865 and 2039. The first 

 two are old birds, the last is a young bird in the first plumage. 

 Although they bear no records of locality Mr. Ridgway thinks 

 that there is practically no doubt that they were collected by 

 Audubon himself on the Arkansas River. In any case they may 

 be regarded as authentic representatives of Audubon's species 

 and since they agree closely in every respect with a number of 

 summer specimens from Ohio and southern Illinois, it seems fair 

 to assume that the Flycatcher which breeds throughout the central 

 portions of the Mississippi Valley is the true E. trailUi. On 

 comparing it with a large series of E. pusillus from west of the 

 Plains, I fail to find any differences by which the two may be 

 separated. It is true that pusillus is subject to a good deal of 

 what appears to be local variation and that some of its represen- 

 tatives from west of the Plains are larger and grayer than any of 

 the Mississippi Valley skins, but others are positively indistin- 

 guishable from the latter. Considered as a whole the series of 

 breeding birds which I have examined from the United States 

 at large, west of the AUeghanies and south of the 42nd parallel, 

 may be regarded, without much violence, as belonging to one 

 and the same form. 



The name which this form should bear is a matter of some 

 uncertainty for although Platyrhytichus pusillus Swainson ante- 

 dates Muscicapa traiUii Audubon by several years it is not 

 determinable by Swainson's original description (Syn. Mex. 

 Birds, Phil. Mag., I, 1827, p. 366). In the Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana (Part second, 1831, pp. 144-146) this author 

 describes and figures under the name " Tyraimula pusilla 

 (Swainson) " a Flycatcher taken at *' Carlton House, lat. 53° 

 N., May, 1827," which he says is smaller than the T. querula 

 of Wilson \= EjHpidonax virescens (Vieillot)] "particularly in 

 the bill, which is rather broader towards the middle, although 

 formed on the same model," and in respect to the wings which 

 " are much shorter " measuring " only 2 inches " in length. He 



