256 NOTES ON THE 
nearly white; sides of the belly, abdomen and the lower tail cov- 
erts sulphur yellow; the quills and tail feathers dark brown—as 
dark, if not more so, as these parts in Contopus 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 rather lighter; 
bill above dark brown, dull brownish beneath. 
Length, 6 inches; wing, 2.90; tail, 2.60. 
Habitat, eastern North America, breeding from the middle 
states northward; in winter south to Central America. 
EMPIDONAX MINIMUS Barrp. (467.) 
LEAST FLYCATCHER. 
The Least Flycatcher is the bravest of his genus, arriving in 
spring, in one year, as early as the fifth of May, but as a gen- 
eral thing it has been later by about five to ten days. It soon 
becomes common along the Mississippi, and the borders of 
swamps and low lands generally. During June, July and 
part of August it may be seen at almost any time of the day 
perching on the lower limb of a tall tree, peeping its charac- 
teristic note, variously expressed by different observers as 
‘“chebec,” ‘‘sewick,”’ ‘‘shebick,” etc., etc. It must be heard to be 
understood. It is uttered rather sharper and more quickly 
than any notes of the other Flycatchers. From its perch it 
makes frequent dashes into the air, where it seizes an insect 
and returns to the same place, repeating at brief intervals its 
short, sharp, unmelodious ‘‘chebeck.”” There is a general distri- 
bution of this species over the entire State, from Duluth, where 
I found it exceedingly common, to the Red river, and south to 
the borders where it is no less common. Dr. Hvoslef records 
it in Root river valley, and Mr. Lewis found it common along 
the Rainy Lake river to the Lake of the Woods, where it was 
‘abundant on the islands.”’ 
Mr. Washburn found it still represented on the Red river as 
late as about the first of September, but rare. Dr. Coues 
gives it as more numerous along that stream during the breed- 
ing season than he had found it any where else. (Birds of the 
northwest pp. 254-5). I have known them to begin to build 
their nests as early as the 18th of May, but that is about a 
week sooner than the average. It is.almost uniformly placed 
in the forks of a sapling,—rarely in a bush, except when 
found along the shores of streams running through marshy dis- 
