32 TYRANNID^: : FLYCATCHERS. 



from Maine. But Mr. Samuels erroneously omits it from 

 his Massachusetts list. Earlier authors speak of it as 

 being very common, but so far as I can learn it is quite 

 rare. At Washington, D. C, it is by far the most abun- 

 dant species of the genus." (Pr. Essex Inst., v, 1868, p. 



264). 



This is an inkling of the truth, in recognizing the re- 

 stricted southerly habitat of the bird in comparison with 

 its congeners, and would appear to be well-founded, view- 

 ing the many New England records upon which it was 

 based ; among them that of so careful and reliable an 

 observer as Mr. Allen, who had confidently attributed 

 the species to Massachusetts (Pr. Essex Inst., iv, 1864, 

 p. 54). The uncertainty of the case was soon after 

 remarked by Dr. Brewer (Am. Nat., i, 1867, p. 119), 

 who later communicated to Dr. Coues a note on the 

 subject, which was published in the Birds of the North- 

 west. " I do not think the bird occurs in New England, 

 even in the Connecticut Valley, and believe that Mr. 

 Allen has mixed it up with traillii. I have myself no 

 evidence of its breeding northeast of Philadelphia ; but 

 it is shy and retiring in its habits, and would readily 

 escape notice, so that its presence in New Jersey, New 

 York, and New England may not be uncommon, and yet 

 we not know it." (B. N. W., 1874, p. 251.) In the 

 same work (p. 250) it is stated that the bird "remains to 

 be detected in New England." Dr. Brewer, therefore, 

 very properly expunged the species from his catalogue 

 of 1875, with the following statement : "Mr. Allen in- 

 forms me that the species found in western Massachu- 

 setts, and included by him in the list as the Acadian 

 Flycatcher, is really Emp. Traillii. This leaves us 

 without any evidence of the occurrence of the species, 



