EMPIDONAX TRAILLII, TRAILl's FLYCATCHER. 253 



Columbia, where he also locates pusillm. Bnt it is best to accept traillii 

 as the eastern bird, taking pitsillus, as detiued by Baird more particu- 

 larly, for the western form, if this be considered worthy of a name. 



In the East I never found Traill's Flycatcher abundant, having ob- 

 served it only in its passage through the Middle districts, chiefly in May 

 and September. According to New England writers, it breeds in that 

 section; and Mr. Maynard has given a valuable note respecting it: 

 "This species has a most peculiar note, like the syllables '/ceww'fc'; 

 this is not so quickly given as the ' se-wic'V of E. minimus, and is some- 

 what harsher. There is, perhaps, thirty seconds' interval between each 

 keiviii'lc. The birds while singing were perched on the top of a low alder. 

 It appears to frequent these thickets, generally by the side of streams, 

 for Mr. Brewster has repeatedly observed it in similar localities at Gor- 

 ham, where it had the same song and habits. When the bird is freshly 

 killed, the bill bears a striking resemblance to that of JE. flaviventris, 

 and having the under mandible yellow, delicately veined with purple. 

 But in the dried state this yellow fades into brown, and loses its vein- 

 ing. The whole bird then appears much like the larger and darker 

 types of B. minimus. Indeed, were it not for the slightly larger and 

 broader bill, and generally olivaceous or greenish-yellow stripe at the 

 base of the upper mandible and sides of the head of U. traillii, it would 

 be diflicult to determine the skins of the two species." I entirely agree 

 with the author so far, though the rest of his article is not so pertinent. 

 E. minimus does grade up to traillii in size, the colors are very 

 nearly the same, and the proportions of the parts scarcely different ; 

 yet no one who has had any experience in the field would say that they 

 were not different birds. 



This species appears to entirely withdraw from the United States in 

 the fall, to winter in (Jentral America. 



I found var. pusillus an abundant Flycatcher of the West. At Fort 

 Whi23ple, in Arizona, it is the commonest and characteristic species of 

 its group, arriving in the middle of April, and remaining through Sep- 

 tember. According to my notebook, the under mandible in my speci- 

 mens was dusky flesh-color. They averaged about 6 inches long by 9 

 in extent, thus being quite as large as ordinary acadicus. A young bird 

 was strongly suffused with olivaceous-yellow below, nearly as in Jlavi- 

 ventris, and had the under mandible bright yellow, like the inside of the 

 mouth. The species was not noticed by Dr. Hayden in the Missouri 

 region, but we have various quotations demonstrating a general range 

 from the central plains to the Pacific, north to the fur countries, and 

 south far into, if not quite through, Mexico. Mr. Merriam gives the 

 following account of its nidiflcation : 



" This western race of E. traillii was very common in the Salt Lake 

 Valley, where I collected seven specimens and three nests. They build 

 a neat, compact little nest, which they place in the fork of a rose or 

 other small bush, about five feet above the ground. It is composed of 

 fibrous grasses, flax, wool, and other soft substances, interwoven with a 

 few leaves of swamp-grass. It is a curious fact that this bird places all 

 the wool and other soft, downy substances on the otitside of its nest, 

 lining it with the rough stalks of dry grass." 



The eggs of this species {traillii), to judge from numerous specimens 

 before me, may be distinguished from those of acadicns in lacking much 

 or all of the creamy tinge of the latter, and in the markings being, for 

 the most part, large, bold, and blotched, rather than sharply dotted. 

 The fact that the eggs are colored mstead of colorless at once distin- 

 guishes them from, those of E. minimus, and is a point to be regarded 

 in discussing the specific relationshins of tha-two. 



