298 LAND-BIRDS. 



birds, will almost invariably from year to year discover 

 species which they have never before observed, though they 

 may often have seen them, and will find many species com- 

 mon which they before considered rare. And this is not 

 merely because beginners set too high a value on all com- 

 mon objects, but because their observation, on being culti- 

 vated, is greatly increased. It has, however, been said, some- 

 what sarcastically, that inexperienced students see more rare 

 birds and nests than an experienced naturalist can ever find. 



C. FLAVivENTEis. Yellow-belUed Flycatcher. Not com- 

 mon in New England.* 



a. About b^ inches long. Above, olive green; sides, 

 shaded with the same; otherwise, beneath, decided yellow. 

 Lower mandible, eye-ring, wing-bars, etc., yellowish (or even 

 yellow). Tail, even or rounded. 



b. Dr. Brewer found a nest of this species which closely 

 resembled that of the Indigo Bird, at Grand Manan, near 

 the shore, "about two feet from the ground, placed in the 

 fork of a bush." The eggs were white. "Those procured 

 by Mr. Boardman were sprinkled with minute dots of red- 

 dish brown. Their measurement is .68 X -62 of an inch." 

 Two eggs which I got in the White Mountains measure about 

 .75 X .55 of an inch, and are pure white, unmarked.f 



c. The Yellow-bellied Flycatchers are the rarest members 

 of their family in New England, and, though their distri- 

 bution is probably similar to that of Traill's Flycatcher, 

 yet apparently they are in no district very common. I 

 have rarely found them near Boston, and generally have 



* A common, tut somewhat local the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher are now 



summer resident of northern New Eng- known to have a decided creamy 



land, not known to breed anywhere in ground color and to be always (at least 



southern New England, but of regular normally) distinctly spotted. The 



occurrence there during the migrations, nest, moreover, is not placed in a bush 



when it is sometimes fairly numerous, but either in the side of a moss-eov- 



*"■ "■ ered bank or among the earth-laden 



t There can be little doubt that the roots of a fallen tree. As a rule this 



eggs taken by Mr. Minot, as well as Flycatcher lays four eggs, but there is 



those found by Dr. Brewer, belonged one record of a set of fire. — W. B. 

 to some other species, for the eggs of 



