COUES ON BIRDS OF DAKOTA AND MONTANA. 611 



EMPIDOKAX TRAILLI, {ziud.) Bd. 



Traill's Flycatcher. 



I found this species common at Pembina, like tbe minimus, during 

 the first week in Juue, but did not observe it later than the 9th of 

 that month. They appeared to pass on northward, yet I can hardly 

 suppose that the species never breeds here, which is fully as far north 

 as the localities in which it nests in the Eastern States. However, if it 

 does so, I overlooked the fact. 



List of specimens. 



EMPIDOI^AX MI^SIMUS, Bd. 



Least Flycatcher. 



Very abundant at Pembina, and found also on Turtle Mountain, be- 

 yond which not seen. I found it common on my arrival, the 1st of June, 

 and during that month secured a large series of specimens, including 

 many nests and eggs, the latter not until the middle of the month. The 

 usual site of the nest is the npright crotch formed by three or more di- 

 verging twigs of some sapling or stout bush, usually 10 or 12 feet from 

 the ground. One nest that I took I could reach standing on the ground, 

 bat another was in a slender elm-tree some 40 feet high, on a swaying 

 bough, but in a crotch of upright twigs as usual. The female, during 

 incubation, is as close a setter as some of the ground Sparrows. In one 

 instance I came within arm's length before the bird flew, and then she 

 merely fluttered out of reach and stood uttering a disconsolate note. 

 The nest is usually let deeply down into the crotch, and bears the im- 

 press of the twigs. It is composed of intertwined strips of fine fibrous 

 inner bark and decomposed weedy substances, matted with a great 

 quantity of soft plant-down, and finished with a lining of a few horse- 

 hairs or fine grasses, making a firm, warm fabric, with a smooth, even 

 brim, about 2^ inches across outside and less than 2 inches deep ; gen- 

 eral shape tends somewhat to be conical, but much depends upon the 

 site of the nest. The walls are thin, sometimes barely coherent along 

 the track of the supi)orting twigs. The cavity is large for the size of 

 the nest, scarcely or not contracted at the top, and about as wide as 

 deep. In six instances I found not more than 4 eggs, which seems to 

 Ije the full complement. These are pure white in color, of ordinary 

 shape (but variable in this respect), and measure about two-thirds of an 

 inch in length by one half in breadth. Extremes of length noted were 

 0.59 and 0.68 ; the diameter is less variable. 



