BIRDS OF NEW YORK 1 89 



sometimes 4 or 6; creamy white in color, rather broadly oval in shape, 

 sometimes with a few fine reddish brown spots; average size .79 by .60 

 inches. Two broods are reared in a season in this State, but rarely in 

 the same nest, for before the young are able to fly they and the whole 

 nesting site usually become infested with innumerable small reddish lice 

 which sometimes kill the young birds and render the nest uninhabitable 

 for the remainder of the season. This pitiful misfortune of the Phoebe 

 bird has made her an unwelcome neighbor about the summer camp, and 

 many nests are destroyed each season by people who might better dust 

 the nests and young with insect powder and thus protect themselves and 

 the birds alike from the unwelcome parasites. 



Nuttallornis borealis (Swainson) 

 Olive-sided Flycatcher 



Plate 67 



Tyrannus borealis Swainson. Fauna Bor.-Am. 1831 (1832). 2: 141, pi. 35 

 Tvrannus cooperi DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 118, fig. 73 

 Nuttallornis borealis A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 213. No. 459 

 nuttallornis, formed from the surname of Thomas Nuttall and 8pvt«, bird; borealis, 

 northern 



Description. Upper parts brownish slate; wings and tail blackish; 

 the indistinct wing bars and edgings of the secondaries grayish; sides 

 brownish gray; middle line of all the under parts from throat to tail, whitish; 

 a conspicuous tuft of silky white feathers on the flank, usually showing on 

 the sides of the rump when the bird is at rest. 



Length 7.2-8 inches; wing 4-4.5; tail emarginate, 2.9-3.5; bill from 

 nostril .54; tarsus .6. 



Distribution. The Olive-sided flycatcher inhabits eastern North 



America, breeding from Massachusetts to Minnesota, and in the Alleghanies 



from North Carolina northward to the Hudsonian zone; winters in tropical 



America. In New York State this bird is a rather uncommon transient 



visitant in the greater portion of the State, arriving from the 12th to the 



20th of May and passing on to the north between the 24th and 31st of 



the month. In the fall they make their appearance in the coastal district 



