2l8 Genercd Notes. [^p"^l 



alights; on a dead twig, her weight or the action of her wings snapping it 

 off. She then carries it off in her feet. Last Mav 23d a Swift flew to a 

 willow near where I was standing, and snapped oft' a dead twig in the 

 same manner." This is precisely the performance which Mr. Fuertes's 

 drawing represents. — Elliott Coues, Washington, D. C. 



Probable First Description of Empidonax flaviventris. — It would seem 

 unlikely that two such common birds as the Least and the Yellow-bellied 

 Flycatcher could have slipped through the fingers of Wilson, Nuttall, and 

 Audubon, and remained to be discovered by the Messrs. Baird in 1843. Of 

 the two, the Yellow-bellied is the brightest colored and best marked in 

 comparison with the Small Green-crested — the only one of the three 

 which was characterized in Wilson's time ; both Traill's and the Least 

 being less likely than the Yellow-bellied to be discriminated fi-om the 

 Green-crested in those times. I find in Nuttall a notice which, it seems 

 to me, can hardly be anything else than an indication of E. ftaviventris. 

 This is as follows, with italics for the most significant phrases : 



" Note. We are acquainted with a third small species [of flycatcher] 

 allied to the present \Tyra71n11la pusilla Sw.] and acadica, but distinguish- 

 able by the superior brigJit7iess of its plumage ; being olive-green above 

 and o,n the flanks. Rump, a7id beneath the xvings ahnost st{lph//r-ve/to7i>, 

 with a brightish bar also on the wings. This species does not appear to 

 migrate much to the north of New York State." Nutt., Man., orig. ed., 

 Vol. II, 1834. App., p. 56S. 



Nuttall is here speaking of no imaginary bird, and not compiling a 

 notice from somebody else. lie knows such a bird, and he describes it at 

 first hand — perhaps from memory, perhaps from observation in life with- 

 out a specimen; but at an}' rate, his bird is a fact, and as such must be 

 accounted for. He is also dealing with a true Flycatcher — not with any 

 Warbler, or Vireo, or even Fly-catching Warbler of his genus Sylvania — 

 all of which he is perfectly able to discriminate from any species of 

 ^' Miiscicapa" or "■ Tyi-attnula." In the orig. ed., I, 1832, he has the 

 Pha-be, the Wood Pewee, the Olive-sided, and the Small Green-crested, all 

 pat and by themselves, showing that he understands this group as some- 

 thing apart from Warblers, etc. In the Appendix to his Vol. II, 1S34, 

 when he had got hold of the Fauna Boreali-Americana, he adds to his list of 

 true Flycatchers Tyrannula pusilla Sw., and Tyrannula richardsonii Sw., 

 between which two species he interpolates the ' note ' I have just cited. 

 This fixes the position of his new bird as a 'Tyrannuline,' and I do not 

 see what else it can be than Empidonax Jiavive7itris ; the description is a 

 fairly good one, and certainly fita flaviz'entris better than it does anv 

 other species. Nuttall gives no name to his new- bird, and in fact cancels 

 his ' note ' in his 2d ed., 1840, where the case drops out of sight altogether ; 

 so that no nomenclatural question is raised. But this fugitive ' note,' 

 tucked away in the appendix to his Water Bird volume of 1834, and then 

 disappearing seems to embody a curious bit of early history', worth 

 pausing a moment to consider. — Elliott Coues, Washington, D. C. 



