COUES on nesting of Flycatchers in Missouri. 21 



the birds themselves apart, especially -wheu \^e only study their 

 dried skins, and when we come to their nests and eggs great caution 

 is necessary to avoid mistakes. 



It is safe to say that Wilson's, Nuttall's, Avidubon's, Brewer's, and 

 the present writer's pi;blished biographies contain some chaff with 

 the wheat ; and it is not safe to rely entirely upon the accounts these 

 authors have given in their respective works, without verifying 

 their accuracy in every particular by reference to the articles which 

 have appeared in this Bulletin.* 



Let me premise, that the only Empidonax whose nests and eggs 

 I have myself studied in the field, is E. minimus, a perfectly reliable 

 account of which, as observed in Dakota, is given in "The Birds of 

 the Northwest." Whatever other accounts I have published are 

 compiled, oi", at most, are original only in so far as my handling of 

 cabinet specimens goes. 



Messrs. Purdie, Osborne, and Batchelder are severally at present 

 of our most reliable authorities in the case of E. flaviventris. 



Mr. H. W. Henshaw is the writer to whom we may turn with 

 most confidence for information respecting the two other Eastern 

 species, E. trail/ i and E. acadicus ; and one object of the present 

 paper is to confirm and amplify his accurate observations. Another 

 purpose to be subsei'ved in this instance is to show how much the 

 nidification of these species varies with circumstances (compare the 

 foot-note beyond). 



From Mr. O. Widmann, 4024 Carondelet Avenue, St. Louis, 

 Missouri, I received last June an interesting letter relating to 

 Traill's and the Acadian Flycatchers, together with a welcome pres- 

 ent of five pretty nests, three of the former and two of the latter 

 species, each with its complement of nicely prepared and labelled 

 eggs. These I wish to describe. But first let me give extracts 

 from Mr. Widmann's interesting letter : — 



" Dear Sir : — Allow me to present you with a few nests of Empid. 

 trailli and acadicus, which by themselves may be of no value, but which 



* Hexshaw on E. trailli and E. acadiciis, I, April, 1876, pp. 14-17. — 

 Purdie on E. trailli, as observed in Maine, I, Sept., 1876, pp. 75, 76. — 

 Purdie on E. flaviveyitris, III, Oct., 1878, pp. 166-168. — Osborne on the 

 same, ibid., pp. 187, 188, and IV, Oct., 1879, pp. 240, 241. — Batchelder on 

 the same, ibid., pp. 241, 242. — Hayward on a spotted egg of E. minimtts [?], 

 ibid., IV, April, 1879, p. 124. —See also Brewer on 8 species f Empidonax, 

 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., II, April, 1879, pp. 1-10. 



