14 QUARTERLY BULLETIN. 



ON TWO EMPIDONACES, TEAILLII AND ACADICU S. 

 BY H. W. HENSHAW. 



Perhaps no one group of North American birds has given 

 rise to more confusion, and perplexing errors of identification 

 than our small Flycatchers. More from this reason than from 

 any other cause, our knowledge of the exact range of several of 

 them is still far from being as complete as would be desirable. 

 With a few words on this subject I shall pass to the main object 

 of this paper, which was to call attention to certain differences, 

 between the nests of the two species mentioned above, which it 

 seems to me have never been sufficiently emphasized in the dis- 

 tinction of the two birds, though by no means unknown before. 



In New England, if the Acadian Flycatcher be found at all, 

 it is in the character of a very rare visitant, and I am inclined 

 to believe that all of the various quotations assigning this bird 

 to a place in the New England fauna may be set down as in- 

 stances of mistaken identification, not excepting the evidence 

 of Mr. J. A. Allen, who states that E acadicus is a rare summer 

 visitant near Springfield, Mass. I am inclined to think that Mr. 

 Allen's acadicus, were really Traillii, more especially since, in 

 recounting the habits, he says, '* it breeds in swamps and thick- 

 ets, which are its exclusive haunts." This accords perfectly 

 with the habits of E. traittii, and is utterly at variance with 

 those of acadicus, as elsewhere shown.* 



As at present made out the Acadian Flycatcher reaches no 

 farther north along the coast than New Jersey. Nor in the in- 

 terior does its range appear to extend much if any higher. 

 Going west we find it occurs in about the same latitude in Penn- 

 sylvania, in Ohio, where it is numerous about Columbus, (Dr. 

 J. M. Wheaton,) and in southern Illinois, as shown by Messrs. 

 Ridgway and Nelson ; while the Mississippi may be looked upon 

 as marking about its western limit. 



We find, however, one quotation from further west, that of 

 Mr. Allen of eastern Kansas. In its distribution the Traill's 

 Flycatcher is decidedly more northern, though the southern line 



*Since penning the above I understand that Mr. Allen allows thia view to 

 be correct. 



