BIRDS OF NEW YORK 1 99 



Empidonax minimus (W. M. & S. F. Baird) 

 Least Flycatcher 



Plate 68 



Tyrannula minima W. M. & S. F. Baird. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1843. 



1:284 

 Empidonax minimus A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 216. No. 467 



minimus, Lat., .smallest 



Description. This is the smallest of all our small flycatchers. Upper 

 parts grayish brown tinged with olivaceous ; wing bars and edgings whitish ; 

 under parts dull whitish tinged across the breast with grayish brown and 

 washed on the flanks with light yellowish, but much whiter in general 

 on the itnder part than either the Alder or the Green-crested flycatcher. 



Length 5-5.5 inches; extent 8; wing 2.2-2.6; tail slightly emarginate 

 2.1-2.4; bill from nostril .29, width at base .25; tarsus .65. 



Distribution. The Least flycatcher or Chebeck, as it is usually called, 

 is a common summer resident of all portions of the State, being almost 

 or quite as common as the Wood pewee both in settled districts and in 

 the wooded hills of the " southern tier " and the outskirts of the Adiron- 

 dacks. It arrives from the south from April 25th to the 12th of May, 

 average date being May 3, and departs for the south from the 5th to the 

 25th of September. Its general distribution is from central Mackenzie, 

 Quebec and Cape Breton southward to Nebraska, Indiana, Pennsylvania 

 and New Jersey, and its winter range from northeastern Mexico to Panama 

 and Peru. 



The haunts of the Least flycatcher are the garden, orchard, grove 

 and open woodland. He is more often seen in exposed positions than 

 either the Alder, Green-crested or Yellow-bellied flycatchers and is a rather 

 familiar bird of orchard lands, sitting on the top of the apple tree or the 

 telegraph wire, uttering continually his chebeck or sebic with a slight jerk 

 of the head. At other times it seems to say " s-slick-s-slick " or " sewick.'' 

 It has also a call note which resembles the syllable " whit " and is some- 

 times seen hovering over the trees where the nest is concealed twittering 

 a low " whit-wee-wee.'" The nest is a compactly felted structure, more 

 delicate in appearance than that of any of our other small flycatchers, 



