THE YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHEE. 295 



109. Empidonax flaviventris Baird. 



YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER. 



Tyramnula flaviventris Baird (W. M. & S. F.), Proceedings Academy Natural Sciences, 



Philadelphia, Pa., July, 1843, 283. 

 Empidonax flaviventris Baird, Birds of North America, 1858, 198. 

 (B 144, C 259, B 322, C 388, U 463.) 



Geographical range : Eastern North America; north to the southern portions of 

 Labrador and the Northeast Territory; west to Manitoba and Minnesota; south in 

 wiuter through eastern Mexico aud Central America to Panama. Casually to Greenland. 



The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is a summer resident in the northern forest 

 and mountain regions of the United States, and breeds from Massachusetts 

 and New York northward through the maritime provinces of the Dominion of 

 Canada to southern Labrador and the Northeast Territory, where Prof. John 

 Macoun reports this species as common about Lake Mistassinni, in latitude 51°, 

 longitude 72° and 73°, and it probably passes beyond this point. It has also 

 been recorded as breeding regularly in the Alleghany Mountains, in Pennsyl- 

 vania, and probably will yet be found as a rare summer resident at points 

 considerably farther south, as in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, etc. 

 In the west it is recorded as a regular summer resident in eastern Manitoba and 

 Minnesota, and probably breeds also in northern Wisconsin. It passes south iu 

 winter through eastern Mexico and Central America to Panama. Several 

 specimens have been recorded from Greenland. 



Within the limits of the United States the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher seems 

 to be fairly common in the northern New England States, while in the Adiron- 

 dacks and Catskills, in New York, it must be considered as rather rare. This 

 apparent rarity is due perhaps more to its unobtrusive habits, its retiring nature, 

 and favorite haunts during' the breeding season; as it frequents the dark, moist 

 recesses of the forests, which at this time of the year abound with biting insect 

 pests of all kinds, and which for that reason are usually shunned by all but 

 truly enthusiastic ornithologists and oologists. As far as my observations go 

 (and they are rather limited) I consider this species the most silent and retiring 

 of all our Flycatchers, and, although it may be much more common in suitable 

 localities during the breeding season than it appears to be, it is but rarely seen 

 at this time unless accidentally flushed from its nest. In the Adirondack moun- 

 tains, where I have met with it, it was observed only in primitive mixed and 

 rather open woods, where the ground was thickly strewn with decaying, moss- 

 covered logs and boles, and almost constantly shaded from the rays of the sun. 

 The most gloomy-looking places, fairly reeking with moisture, where nearly 

 every inch of ground is covered with a luxuriant carpet of spagnum moss, into 

 which one sinks several inches at every step, regions swarming with mosquitoes 

 and black flies, are the localities that seem to constitute their favorite summer 

 haunts, and it is not surprising to me that the eggs of this Flycatcher are still 



