294 



LAND-BIRDS. 



eastern Massachusetts; most common in the latter part of 

 May.* 



a. Six inches long, or less. Tail, even ; crown-feathers, 

 erectile, dark-centred ; bill, not black. Above, dark olive 

 green, usually tinged with brown. Beneath, white, shaded 

 with the color of the back on the sides, with grayish on the 

 breast, and with yellow behind. Eye-ring, and two wing-bars, 

 (yellowish) white. 



6. The nest of this species is usually placed not far from 



the ground, in a swamp 

 or near a brook, and fre- 

 quently in an alder bush. 

 It is composed of grasses, 

 stalks of weeds, and nar- 

 row strips of bark. Sev- 

 eral eggs which I got 

 among the White Moun- 

 tains average about .65 

 X -50 of an inch, and 

 are creamy, or pale buff, 

 with a few dots of red- 

 dish brown at the larger 

 end. Dr. Brewer de- 

 scribes others as white, "marked almost entirely about the 

 larger end with larger and well defined spots and blotches of 

 purplish brown." 



c. The Traill's Flycatchers are common summer residents 

 in many parts of northern New England, and of western Mas- 

 sachusetts, but near Boston they are very rare. They are 

 most common in the latter part of May, when they may occar 

 sionally be seen in copses, thickets, and swampy woodland. 

 They are then migrating, and are often entirely silent. Nearly 

 all pass on to the northward. Among the White Mountains, 

 they frequent wet woodland, sheltered water-courses, and 



* A common summer resident at of northwestern Connecticut. In east- 

 most suitable localities in northern New ern Massachusetts it occurs regularly, 

 England, also hreeding not uncommon- but only in very small numbers, during^ 

 ly in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, the spring migrations in late May and 

 and in the adjoining elevated portions early June. — W. B. 



Fig. 15. TraiU's Flycatcher, (i) 



