344 FLYCATCHERS 



the Phoebe's place and singing the Phoebe's song. He was not intended 



to adorn a bridge or barn, but in the darkened woods, high up in the 



trees, he finds a congenial home. 



His pensive, gentle ways are voiced by his sad, sweet call: 

 The notes are as musical and restful, as much a part 

 f Nature's hymn, as the soft humming of a brook. 

 All day long the Pewee sings; even when the heat 

 of summer silences more vigorous birds, and the 

 ~Pee-a-wee midday sun sends light-shafts to the ferns, the 

 clear, sympathetic notes of the retiring songster 



come from the green canopy overhead, in perfect harmony with the 



peace and stillness of the hour. 



THE WESTERN WOOD PEWEE (Myiochanes richardsoni richardsoni) has 

 been recorded from Wisconsin (Cory, Birds Ills, and Wise., 536). 



463. Empidonax flaviventris Baird. YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER. 

 Ads. Upperparts rather dark olive-green; wings and tail fuscous; greater 

 and lesser wing-coverts tipped with white or yellowish white; underparts 

 sulphur-yellow, the belly pure, the throat, breast, and sides more or less 

 washed with olive-green; upper mandible black, lower mandible whitish or 

 flesh-color; second to fourth primaries of equal length, the first shorter than 

 the fifth. Im. Yellow of the underparts brighter, wing-bars more yel- 

 low, and sometimes tinged with pale ochraceous-buff. L., 5'63; W., 2*65; 

 T., 2'16; B. from INT., "33. 



Remarks. This is the most yellow of our small Flycatchers. In any 

 plumage the entire underparts, including the throat, are sulphur-yellow or 

 dusky yellowish. In the other eastern species of this genus the throat is 

 white. 



Range. Breeds in Canadian zone from n. Alberta, n. Man., n. Que., 

 and N. F., s. to N. D., n. Minn., n. Mich., n. N. Y., Pa. (mts.), and N. H.; 

 w. in migration to the e. border of the Plains, e. Tex., and e. Mex.; winters 

 from s. Mex. to Panama, occasional in migration in w. Fla.; accidental in 

 Greenland. 



Washington, rather common T. V., May; July 28-Oct. 6. Ossining, 

 common T. V., May 17- June 4; Aug. 8-Sept. 20. Cambridge, T. V., some- 

 times rather common, May 25- June 3; Aug. 28-Sept. 8. N. Ohio, rare T. V., 

 May 10. Glen Ellyn, rather rare T. V., May 20- June 5; Sept. 3. SE. Minn., 

 common, T. V., May 19. 



Nest, of moss, lined with grasses, on the ground, beneath the roots of a 

 tree or imbedded in moss. Eggs, 4, creamy white, with numerous pale cin- 

 namon-brown markings, chiefly about the larger end, '68 x '54. Date, 

 Wilmurt, N. Y., June 10; Grand Manan, N. B., June 16, inc. adv. 



To see this little Flycatcher at his best, one must seek the northern 

 evergreen forest, where, far from human habitation, its mournful 

 notes blend with the murmur of some icy brook tumbling over mossy 

 stones or gushing beneath the still mossier decayed logs that threaten 

 to bar its way. Where all is green and dark and cool, in some glen 

 overarched by crowding spruces and firs, birches and maples, there it is 

 we find him, and in the beds of damp moss he skilfully conceals his 

 nest. He sits erect on some low twig, and, like other Flycatchers, the 

 snap of his bill tells of a sally after his winged prey. He glides quietly 

 away when approached, and his occasional note of complaint may be 

 heard as long as one remains in his vicinity. During the migration 



