TYBANNID^ — TYBANNIN^ : TYRANT FLYCATCHEliS. 44o 



390. E. ham'mondi. (To Dr. W. A. Hammond, U. S. A.) Hammond's Fltcatciiek. Dirty 

 Little Flycatcher. Above, ct\i\e-gray, decidedly grayer or even ashy on the fore-parts; 

 the whole throat and breast almost eontinnously olive-gray but little paler tlian tlje bark, the 

 belly alone more or less decidedly yellowisli ; wing-markings and eye-ring dull soiled wliitish ; 

 bill very small, and extremely narrow, being hardly or not 0.20 wide at the nostrils ; this distin- 

 guishes the bird from all but minimus a.nA obscurus; under mandible usually blackish; tail usu- 

 ally decidedly /o)7«(^, more so than in other species (though in all of them it varies from .sliglitly 

 rounded to slightly emarginate) ; outer tail-feather usually whitish-ed^ef? externally (a cluiracter 

 often shown by trailli and minimus), but not decidedly white. About the size (jf minimus ; 

 wings and tail relatively longer. Plains to the Pacific, U. S., and British Am. This is the 

 Western representative of minimus, but is tangibly distinct; the general tone of coloration is 

 heavy, fall specimens in particular giving somewhat the effect of a dirty flaviventris; the tiny 

 bill is a good mark. Nesting substantially like minimus; eggs lehite, unmarked. Note " a 

 soft pit." 



391. E. obscu'rus. (Lat. obscurus, dark.) Wright's Flycatcher. Gray Little Flycatcher. 

 Colors not very tangibly different from those of trailli or minimus, but outer web of outer tail- 

 feather abruptly u-hite in decided contrast. Greneral tone ciuite gray; gray below quite across 

 breast, giving the effect thereof Contopus richardsoni; under mandible obscured; eye-ring and 

 wing-edgings quite whitish. General dimensions approaclring those of acadicus, f)wing to 

 length of wings and tail. Length doubtless up to fi.OO, and extent to 9.50 ; wing 2.06-3.00 ; 

 tail 2.50-2.75; tarsi about 0.75; bill about 0.50, extremely narroio (much as in Sayiornis 

 fusca), its width at the nostrils only about -J its length. The bird looks singularly lilie the 

 Western Contopus, though of course iunnediately seen to be Empidonax. Rocky and other 

 mts. of the West, N. to 49°, in woodland, groves and thickets. To complete the analogies 

 between the Eastern and Western Empndonaees, this may be considered to represent acadicus. 

 Nesting, however, substantially as in minimus : a neat, compact, deep-cupped nest in crotch of 

 a sapling, and eggs S-4, white, unmarked, but large, 0.75 X 0.58. Note " a weird sioeer," " a 

 soft liquid u'hit." (E. obscurus, E. wrightii, Baird, 1858 ; but qu. Tyr. ohscura Sw. 1827"?J 



124. MITRE'PHANES. (Gr. /xiVptj, m<re, a head-dress ; (^aiVm, I appear.) Little Buff Fly- 

 catchers. Coronal feathers and rictal bristles longer than in Em2ndonax, and general cast of 

 the plumage huffy or fulvous rather than olivaceous ; otherwise (our species at any rate) not 

 different from Emjndonax. Several Mexican species, one reaching our border. (Mitrephanes 

 CoUES, 1SS2, rice Mitrephorus ScL., 1S59, preoccupied.) 



392. M. ful'vifrons palles'oens. (Lat. fulvifrons, fulvous-fronted ; piaUescens, growing pale.) 

 Little Buff-breasted Flycatcher. Above, dull grayish-brown tinged with olive, par- 

 ticularly on tlie back ; below, pale fulvous, strongest across the breast, whitening on the belly ; 

 no fulvous on the forehead ; sides of head light brownish-olive ; wings and tail dusky, fuiter 

 web of outer tail-feathers, edges of inner primaries except at the base, and tips of wing-ccn-erts, 

 whitish ; iris brown; bill yellow below, black aliove ; feet black. Length 4.75 ; extent 7. .3.3 ; 

 wing 2.12; tail 2.00; tarsus 0.55; middle toe and claw 0.45 ; bill 0.40. New Mexico, Ari- 

 zona, and southward. {Empidonax pygmaus CouES, Ibis, 1865, p. 537 ; Mitrephorus palles- 

 cens Coues, Proc. Phila. Acad., 1806, p. 63. My original specimens, affording the descriptions 

 quoted, and the first known to have been taken in the United States, do not appear to bo 

 specifically distinct from Mit.scicajxt fulvifrons of Giraud (B. of Tex., 1841, pi. 2, f. 2) ; they 

 are clean spring birds, and the species is more fulvous in fall plumage.) 



125. ORNITH'IUM. (Gr. opviBwv, ornithion, Aixma. of opwr, a bird.) Beardle.ss Flycatchers. 

 General asjjeet of Empidonax, but remarkably distinguished by the xmrine shape of the bill, 

 and almost entire absence of the rictal bristles so conspicuous in most genera of Tyrannida; 

 though a few slight ones may be seen on close inspection. Bill much shorter than head, stout, 

 compiressed, not depressed as usual in Tyrannida, with high-ridged arched culmen and scarcely 



