LARKS 347 



467. Empidoiiax minimus W. M. and S. F. Baird. LEAST FLY- 

 CATCHER. Ads. Upperparts between olive-green and olive or olive-brown; 

 wings and tail fuscous; greater and lesser wing-coverts tinged with ashy 

 white; underparts whitish, washed with dusky grayish on the breast and 

 sides and generally with a slight tinge of yellowish on the belly; lower man- 

 dible generally horn-color. Im. Underparts slightly more yellow; wing- 

 bars more buffy. L., 5'41; W., 2'51; T., 2'21; B. from N., '31. 



Remarks. This is the smallest of our Flycatchers. Its size, the compara- 

 tive absence of yellow on the underparts, and the generally horn-colored 01 

 brown lower mandible are its chief distinguishing characters. 



Range. Breeds in Canadian and Transition zones from w. cen. Mack- 

 enzie, s. Keewatiri, Que., and Cape Breton Is., s. to cen. Mont., e. Wyo., 

 cen. Nebr., Iowa, Ind., Pa., N. J., and in the Alleghanies to N. C.; in migra- 

 tion w. to e. Colo., and cen. Tex.; winters from lie. Mex. and Yucatan to 

 Peru; casual in Grand Cayman Is., West Indies. 



Washington, common T. V., Apl. 20-May 20; Aug. 13-Sept. 15. Ossin- 

 ing, tolerably common S. R., Apl. 25- Aug. 26. Cambridge, very common 

 S.R., May 1-Aug. 25. N. Ohio, common T. V., Apl. 15-May 25; Aug. 25- 

 Oct. 1; rare in summer. Glen Ellyn, not common S. R., chiefly T. V., May 

 4-Sept. 24. SE. Minn., common S. R., Apl. 30-Sept. 13. 



Nest, of plant down, plant fibers, rootlets, fine strips of bark, and long 

 hairs, generally in a crotch 5-15 feet up. Eggs, 3-5, white, unmarked, 

 63 x *51. Date, New York City, May 30; Cambridge, May 20; se. Minn., 

 May 24. 



When music was distributed, I believe most of our Flycatchers had 

 back seats. It was an unfortunate circumstance, for their sedentary 

 habits and apparently thoughtful, serious, even poetic dispositions 

 make one believe that with proper training they might have taken high 

 rank as musicians. 



Instead of the simple melody we might expect to hear from the 

 modest Least Flycatcher, he salutes us with a singularly inappropriate, 

 business-like chebec, chebec, varying the performance by murderous 

 sallies after passing insects. In crescendo passages he literally rises to 

 the occasion, and on trembling wings sings an absurd chebec tooral- 

 ooral, chebec, tooral-ooral, with an earnestness deserving better results. 



The Chebec, however, possesses originality; we can not confuse his 

 voice with that of any other bird, and young ornithologists should give 

 him a vote of thanks for his clear enunciation. 



He prefers fruit and shade trees to those of forest growth, and is 

 therefore an inhabitant of our lawns and orchards. 



The VERMILION FLYCATCHER (471.1 Pyrocephalus rubinus mexicanus) 

 of our Mexican boundary and southward, has been taken once in Florida 

 (Tallahassee, March 25, 1901; Williams, Auk, 1901, 273). 



48. FAMILY ALAUDID^E. LARKS. (Fig. 60.) 



Some two hundred and twenty-five species and subspecies of Larks 

 are known, the proportion of the latter to the former being exceptionally 

 large, the Horned Lark, the only American species, being represented 

 in North America by no less than fourteen subspecies. 



They are eminently terrestrial birds, always nest on the ground, 

 rarely alight in trees, usually run instead of hop, 'dust' instead of 



