OLIVE- SIDED FLYCATCHER. 263 



wing coverts, and some whitish edging of the inner quills ; feet and upper 

 mandible, black ; lower mandible, mostly yellowish. The olive-brown below has 

 a peculiar streaky appearance hardly seen in other species, and extends almost 

 entirely across the breast ; a peculiar tuft of white fluffy feathers on the flanks. 

 Young : Birds have the feathers, especially of the wings and tail, skirted with 

 rufous. Length, 7-8 ; wing, 85-4^, remarkably pointed ; second quill longest, 

 supported nearly to the end by the first and third, the fourth abruptly shorter ; 

 tail, about 3 ; tarsus, middle toe and claw together, about 1 J. 



HAB. North America, breeding from the northern and the higher 

 mountainous parts of the United States northward, in winter, south to Central 

 America and Columbia. 



Nest, a shallow structure, composed of weeds, twigs, rootlets, strips of 

 bark, etc. , loosely put together, saddled on a bough or placed in a fork high up 

 in a tree. 



Eggs, three or four, creamy-white, speckled with reddish -brown. 



So far as at present known, this species is rare in Ontario, and 

 not very abundant anywhere. Towards the end of May, 1884, when 

 driving along the edge of a swamp, north of the village of Millgrove, 

 I noticed a bird on the blasted top of a tall pine, and stopping the 

 horse, at once recognized the Olive-sided Flycatcher by the loud 

 0-whee-o, 0-whee-o, so correctly described as the note of this species 

 by Dr. Merriam in his " Birds of Connecticut." I tried to reach it 

 with a charge of No. 8, and it went down perpendicularly into the 

 brush, but whether dead, wounded or unhurt I never knew, for I 

 did not see it again. That is the only time I have ever seen the 

 species alive. 



It has a wide distribution, having been found breeding in New 

 Jersey, Pennsylvania, and north on the Saskatchewan, near Cum- 

 berland House. In the west it has been observed in Colorado and 

 along the Columbia River. 



It has occurred as an accidental visitor in Alaska and also in 

 Greenland, but in all of these places it is reported as rare or 

 accidental. It is spoken of as common in Maine, New Hampshire 

 and Vermont, where it seems to have been observed more frequently 

 than elsewhere. It is a species which is not likely to be overlooked 

 when present, for its notes and habits readily attract notice. 



