302 LIFE HISTOEIES OF NOBTH AMERICAN BIBDS. 



112. Empidonax acadicus (Gmelin). 



ACADIAN FLYCATCHER. 



Muscieapa acadica Gmelin, Systema Naturae, I, ii, 1788, 947. 

 Empidonax acadicus Baied, Birds of North America, 1858, 197. 

 (B 143, C 256, B 324, G 384, U 4C5.) 



Geographical range: Eastern North America ; north to southern New England, 

 southern New York, Pennsylvania, southern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, to 

 southern Manitoba; west to eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, the eastern parts of the 

 Indian Territory, and Texas; south in winter through eastern Mexico and Central America 

 to Ecuador, South America, and the Island of Cuba. 



The breeding range of the Acadian Flycatcher, also knoAvn as the "Green- 

 crested Flycatcher," extends from Florida and our Southern States bordering 

 the Gulf coast, north to southern New York, the lower Hudson River Valley, 

 and possibly occasionally to the Connecticut River Valley in southern New 

 England, the greater part of Pennsylvania, Ohio, southern Michigan, Wisconsin, 

 and Minnesota, to the Province of Manitoba Dominion of Canada. In the West it 

 reaches to eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, the Indian Territory, and somewhat 

 beyond the eastern half of Texas, where Mr. H. P. Attwater found it breeding 

 on the Medina River, 15 miles south of San Antonio, Texas, in June, 1891, 

 and sent me the nest, which unquestionably is of this species. Mr. Frank M. 

 Chapman found it breeding near Gainesville, Florida, taking a nest and two 

 half-incubated eggs on May 9. Dr. Leverett M. Loomis reports it as a common 

 summer resident in Chester, Greenville, and Pickens counties, South Carolina. 

 The late Dr. William C. Avery stated that it is common in southern Alabama. 

 It is known to breed in Louisiana and eastern Texas, and may be called fairly 

 common in suitable localities throughout our Middle States. The northern 

 limits of its breeding range are not as positively established as they might be, 

 due to the fact that this species is often mistaken for Empidonax pusillus trailli, 

 which it somewhat resembles, as do the eggs, but there is no resemblance in the 

 nests. 



Dr. A. K. Fisher found the Acadian Flycatcher a regular summer visitor in 

 the vicinity of Sing Sing, New York, and took several nests and eggs there, 

 which are now in the United States National Museum collection; this locality 

 marks about the most northern point of its range in the east. I believe, how- 

 ever, that it occasionally breeds still farther north in this State, as Mr. W. F. 

 Webb sent me a nest and three eggs which he identified as belonging to this 

 species, taken July 4, 1891, near Meridian, Cayuga County, New York. The 

 nest certainly looks like a typical one of Empidonax acadicus, and there is a 

 skin now in the United States National Museum collection, taken at Amsterdam, 

 Montgomery County, New York, June 5, 1885, which further confirms this sup- 

 position. In Pennsylvania it is a common summer resident, and also in south- 

 ern Michigan, where the late Capt. B. F. Goss found it breeding, and whence 



