196 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



built from 5 to 20 feet from the ground on the horizontal limb of a 

 deciduous shrub or tree, made of fine roots, grass, and catkins, rather 

 loosely constructed in flat saucer shape about 3 inches in outside diameter 

 and 2 inches by i inch inside dimensions. The eggs are from 2 to 4 in 

 number, usually 3, of a creamy ground color boldly spotted with dark, 

 reddish brown; average dimensions .74 by .53 inches. They are usually 

 laid from the 30th of May to the 15th or 25th of June. 



Empidonax trailli alnorum Brewster 

 Alder Flycatcher 



Plate 68 



Empidonax traillii alnorum Brewster. Auk. April 1895. 12:161 

 Empidonax trailH alnorum A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 216. 

 No. 466a 



trailli, to Thomas S. Traill, a Scotch naturalist 



Description. Upper parts grayish brown tinged with olivaceous; wing 

 bars and edgings of the wing tawny whitish; under parts yellowish white 

 tinged on the breast with grayish; flanks and under tail coverts strongly 

 washed with yellowish. Lower mandible light colored; tail slightly rounded 

 instead of emarginate. 



Length 5.5-6 inches; extent 9; wing 2.6-3; tail 2.3-2.6; bill from 

 nostril .34; width at base .30; tarsus .66. 



Distribution. This subspecies inhabits eastern North America from 

 central Alaska, Keewatin, central Quebec and Newfoundland south to 

 Montana, southern Ontario and northern New Jersey, and the mountains 

 as far south as West Virginia, and winters in Central America. In New 

 York it is a summer resident in the greater part of the State, fairly com- 

 mon in the Catskills and Adirdndacks and in the colder swamps of central 

 and western New York. It has been found breeding at Buffalo by James 

 Savage; Penn Yan by Verdi Burtch; Branchport by Clarence F. Stone; 

 West Barry by Neil F. Possun; Oneida county by Egbert Bagg; Wilmurt 

 by Doctor Ralph; Phelps by B. S. Bowdish; Nyack by L. W. Brownell; 

 Gretna by Lispenard Horton; Cortland by H. C. Higgins; Kenwood by 

 W. R. Maxon; Cayuta by L. A. Fuertes; Medina by Dana C. Gillette; 



