244 CONTOPUS BOREALIS, OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. 



Lvc. N. Y. Tiii, 1866, 290 ; ix, 1868, 115 (Costa Rica).— Cooes, Pr. Boat. Soc. 

 xii, 1868, 118 (South Carolina).— Tuknis., B. E. Pa. 1869, 13 (very rare).— 

 Coop., B. Cal. i, 1870, 323.— Mayn., Guide, 1870, 125 (Massachusetts, breeds, 

 not very rare).— Mayx., Pr. Bost. Soc. 1871 (Northern New England).- Aiken, 

 ibid. 1872, 206 (Wyoming).- Snow, B. Kans. 1873, 3 (migratory).— Allen, Bull. 

 M. C. Z.iii, 1872, i79 (Colorado Mountains up to 12,000 ieet; Wahsatch Mount- 

 ains : Utah).— Merk., U. S. Geol. Surv. Ter. 1872, 691 (Idaho).— Coues, Key, 

 1872, 173.— Salt., P. Z. S. 1870, 199 (Veragua).— B. B. & R., N. A. B. ii, 1874, 

 353, pi. 44, f. 1. 



Saijornis borealis, Wheat., Ohio Agric. Rep. 1860, Birds, No. 48. 



Pyrocephalus {Contopus) honcdis, Gkay, Hand-list, i, 1869, 362, No. 5507. 



Musoicapa bmrnata. CoOP. & Nutt., Nutt., Man. i, 1832, 282, 2-^5. 



Mnscicapa cooperi, Nutt., Man. i, 1832, :282 (not Tijrannula cooperi, of Hartl., Chili, nor 

 of Kaup, Mexico, nor Myiarckus cooperi of authors). — AuD., Orn. Biog. ii, 1834, 

 422, pi. 174 ; Syn. 1839, 41 ; B. Am. i, 1840, 212, pi. 58.— PuTN., Pr. Ess. Inst, i, 

 1856, 206 (Massachusetts). 



Tyrannus cooperi, Bp., List, 1838, 24.— Ndtt., Man. i, 1840, 298.— Rbinh., Ibis, Jan. 1861, 

 7 (Greenland). 



Tyrannula cooperi, Bp., Consp. Av. i, 1850, 189. 



Contopus cooperi, Cab., J. f. O. iii, 1855, 479 ; ix, 1861, 248 (Costa Rica) ; Mus. Hein. ii, 

 1859, 72 (excl. svn. C. hoi-ealis, Sclater). 



Contojms.mesoleuciis, Scl!, P. Z. S. 18.^9, 43 ; Ibis, 1859, 122, 440.— Scmich., Mem. Bost. 

 Soc. i, 1869, 557 (Vera Cruz). 



Miiscicapa viUica, Licht., "Mus. Berol." (Caianis). 



Hob. — Entire temperate North America. Mexico. Greenland (Beinhardt). Com- 

 mon, and breeds in parts of New England. Rare in Middle and Southern Atlantic 

 States. More abundant in the West. South to Central America. 



List of specimens. 



Later ExpeditiMis.— 61739, Utah ; 62289-90, Idaho. 



The very general dispersion of this species in North America only 

 gradually become apparent. It was discovered bj^ Sir John Eichard- 

 son on the Saskatchewan, at Cumberland House, in latitude 54°, and 

 described in 1831 by Mr. Swainson, as above cited. It was rediscovered 

 by Mr. Nuttall, a specimen being obtained near Cambridge, Massachu- 

 setts, in June, 1830. This gentleman obtained several others in the same 

 vicinity, and described its notes and manners accurately. The nest, he 

 states, was on*" the horizontal branch of a tall cedar- tree, forty or fifty 

 feet from the ground. It was formed much in the manner of the King- 

 bird's, externally made of interlaced dead twigs of the cedar, internally 

 of the wiry stolons of the common cinquefoil, dry grass, and some 

 fragments of branching Lichen or JJsnea. It contained three young, 

 and had probably four eggs. The eggs had been hatched about the 

 20th of June, so that the pair had arrived in this vicinity about the 

 close of May. The young remained in the nest no less than twenty- 

 three days." The same author speaks of the eggs as '• yellowish-creamy 

 white, with spots of reddish-brown, of a light and dark shade." This 

 is exactly the character of the specimens before me. The size is about 

 0.S4 by 0.66. About the same time Dr. Brewer communicated a note to 

 Mr. Audubon, describing the nest as follows : " Measures five inches in 

 external diameter and three and a half inches in internal, and is about 

 half an inch deep. It is composed entirely of roots and fibres of moss. 

 It is, moreover, very rudely constructed, and is almost wholly flat, re- 

 sembling the nest of no other Flycatcher I have seen, but having some 

 similitude to that of the Cuckoo." Xew England quotations have con- 

 tinually multiplied, many referring to the breeding of the bird from 

 Massachusetts northward ; quite lately, Mr. Brewster says, in Mr. May- 

 nard's book above quoted, that it nests generally in the fork of a pine- 

 tree, the only nest fouq^-^g^jy^/tl/jf^(5»|^fi^ituation being placed on 



