ACADIAN FLYCATCHER. 425 
south as Long Island. It is a common summer resident of Maine 
and of the northern part of Vermont and New Hampshire. It is 
common also in New Brunswick. West of this region it breeds 
farther to the southward, being common in the middle of Ohio and 
in southern Illinois and Missouri. Mr. Mcllwraith considers it 
uncommon in Ontario. 
There has been considerable discussion over the breeding habits 
of this species, caused by the difference in habits of the Western 
birds from those which breed near the Atlantic. Here the favorite 
site is a clump of alders near a running stream, and the nest is 
placed within a foot or two of the ground; while in the West a 
small tree is generally selected, — sometimes an oak, — and the nest 
is placed as high as ten feet. The nest, in the West, is not so com- 
pactly or neatly made, and the materials are coarser. The note of 
this bird — for while the Flycatchers are not classed with the 
Oscines, or Singing-Birds, they add not a little to our forest melo- 
dies —is peculiar, though strictly of the family type. It sounds 
something like 2e-wzk delivered with a rising inflection and the 
accent on the final sound, which is prolonged, — quite a different 
note from the abrupt chebec of minimus. 1 have never heard the 
song uttered on the wing; but when the bird is perching, the 
head is tossed back and the note is ffuug out with a decided 
emphasis of manner as well as of voice. 
ACADIAN FLYCATCHER. 
EMPIDONAX ACADICUS. 
Cuar. Upper parts olive, slightly darker on crown; under parts 
whitish, the sides tinged with pale olive, which reaches almost across the 
breast; belly tinged with pale yellow; wings and tail dusky; wing-bars 
byffy. Length 5% to 6 inches. 
Vest. Ina tree, suspended on fork of twigs at the extremity of a low 
limb; rather loosely made of moss or grasses and shreds of bark bound 
with spider’s webbing. 
£ggs. 2-4; buff or creamy white, spotted, chiefly about the larger end, 
with reddish brown; 0.75 X 0.55. 
The older writers had rather confused ideas regarding these 
small Flycatchers, and Nuttall supposed he was writing of the 
present species, when the bird he had in mind was mdnimus. 
The Acadian Flycatcher belongs to the Middle States rather 
than to New England, and has never been taken north of the 
