Birds of Indiana. 863 



1895, October 13, 1896, and October 19, 1894; which is the latest for 

 the State. The well known severe weather in the south in the spring 

 of 1895 must have destroyed many Phoebes. Their decrease was noted; 

 in some localities, it was decided, that summer. By far the greater 

 part of the Phoebe's food is insects. Few, if any, birds are of more 

 benefit. Its work is often about the house and garden, where every 

 effort counts in favor of man. In 80 stomachs examined, over 93 per 

 cent, of the food was insects and spiders. The remainder was wild 

 fruit. The insects were mainly injurious kinds, including click bee- 

 tles, weevils. May beetles, grasshoppers and flies. Major Bendire says 

 cut-worm moths is one of their favorite foods. 



105. Sf.nus CONTOPUS Cabanis. 



a^ Wing 3.90 or over; sides of rump with a conspicuous tuft of white cottonj' 

 feathers. Subgenus Ndttallornis Ridgway. C. borealis (Swains.). 175 



a'. Wing 3.60 or less; no tuft of white feathers on sides of rump. 



Subgenus Contopus. C. virens (Linn.). 176 



Sabgenns Nuttallornis Ridgw. 



175. (459). Contopus borealis (Swains.). 



Olive-sided Plycatclier. 



Adult. — Upper parts, between fuscous and dark olive; wings and 

 tail, fuscous; throat, middle of the belly, and generally a narrow line 

 on the center of the breast, white or yellowish-white; rest of the under 

 parts of nearly the same color as the back; under tail coverts, marked 

 with dusky; a tuft of fluffy, yellowish-white feathers, on either flank; 

 upper mandible, black; lower mandible, yellowish or pale grayish- 

 brown, the tip darker. Immature. — Similar, but with rather more 

 olive above, more yellow below, and with the wing coverts edged with 

 oehraceous-bufE. 



Remarhs. — This species may always be known from other Fly- 

 catchers by the comparatively little white on the under parts, and by 

 the tuft of yellowish-white feathers on the flanks. Like the "Wood 

 Pewee, it has the wing .50 or more longer than the tail (Chapman, 

 Birds E. N. A., pp. 246, 247). 



Length, 7.10-7.90; wing, 3.90-4.50; tail, 2.80-3.50. 



Range. — America, from Peru to mouth of St. Lawrence Eiver, 

 Great Slave Lake and Alaska. Breeds from Massachusetts, New York 

 and Minnesota, north and south along Eocky Mountains to New 

 ^Fexico and Arizona. Winters south of United States. 



