196 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



For a period of about five months, or from early in May until late in 

 September, the Acadian Flycatcher is a common resident in Pennsyl- 

 vania, frequenting chiefly woodland. This species is somewhat shy 

 and difficult to approach, and like the Cuckoo or Yellow-breasted Chat, 

 is oftener heard than seen. I have heard this bird called " Hick-up " 

 from its peculiar note. The shallow, saucer-shaped and loosely made 

 nest is placed usually on a drooping and forked branch of a tree in the 

 forest, a dog-wood, beech or hickory generally being selected. It is 

 composed of blossoms, grasses, fine rootlets or fine pieces of bark. 

 The majority of nests which I have found in the vicinity of West Ches- 

 ter, Pa., were built entirely of blossoms. The nests are rarely more 

 than eight or ten feet from the ground, and are so open at the bottom 

 that the eggs can readily be seen from below. The eggs, usually three 

 in number, are very similar in size, etc., to those of the Wood Pewee 

 they are creamy-white, spotted with reddish-brown. During the late 

 summer and autumn months this species subsists to a limited extent on 

 various kinds of berries. 



The food materials of seven of these birds are given in the following 

 table : 



Empidonax pusillus traillii (Auo.). 



Traill's Flycatcher. 



DESCRIPTION. 



" Upper parts dark olive-green, lighter under the wings, and duller and more 

 tinged with ash on nape and sides of the neck : center of the crown feathers brown ; 

 a pale yellowish-white ring (in some specimens altogether white) round the eye ; 

 loral feathers mixed with white ; chin and throat white ; the breast and sides of 

 throat light-ash tinged with olive, its intensity varying in individuals, the former 

 sometimes faintly tinged with olive ; sides of the breast much like the back ; mid- 

 dle of the belly nearly white ; sides of the belly, abdomen and the lower tail-coverts 

 sulphur-yellow ; the quills and tail-feathers dark-brown, as dark (if not more so) as 

 these parts in C. virens; two olivaceous yellow white bands on the wing, formed 

 by the tips of the first and second coverts, succeeded by a brown one ; the edge of 

 the first primary and of secondaries and tertials a little lighter shade of the same ; 

 the outer edge of the tail feathers like the back, that of the lateral one rather lighter ; 

 bill above dark brown, dull brownish beneath ; iris brown. Length nearly 6 inches ; 

 extent about 8.75 inches. " B. B. of N. A. 



Habitat. Eastern North America, breeding from the Middle States (southern 

 Illinois and Missouri) northward ; in winter south to Central America. 



Traill's Flycatcher, a somewhat suspicious frequenter of thickets, near 



