BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



229 



found regularly, if somewhat sparingly, in summer, throughout much of the 

 city proper, especially in the neighborhood of Harvard College and in the old 

 elms overhanging Brattle Street. In the days of my boyhood there was always 

 a nest on our own place, but the birds bred there for the last time in 1878. 

 A pair frequented some large oaks and willows in the late Dr. Morrill Wyman's 

 grounds at the head of Sparks Street through the entire summer of 1899, ^nd 

 since then I have heard birds in June or early July in Norton's Woods, at Elm- 

 wood, and in the Mount Auburn and Cambridge Cemeteries. Everywhere in 

 or very near Cambridge, however, and even throughout the more retired por- 

 tions of Arlington, Belmont and Waltham, the Wood Pewee has been slowly 

 but steadily diminishing in numbers for the past twenty-five years. I am inclined 

 to believe that the English Sparrows have been largely responsible for its prac- 

 tical disappearance from the more densely populated parts of the Cambridge 

 Region, and that its partial withdrawal from the country districts has been due 

 chiefly to the cutting down or pruning of so many of the older forest and 

 orchard trees. However this may be, it is deplorable that so attractive a bird 

 should bid fair to become nearly or quite lost to our local summer fauna. 



The Wood Pewee still occurs rather numerously at its seasons of migra- 

 tion, especially in late August when its sad, plaintive notes may be heard almost 

 everywhere in our woods and orchards, accentuating rather than breaking the 

 otherwise profound silence of the hot midday hours. 



122. Empidonax flaviventris Baird. 

 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. 



Transient visitor in late spring and early autumn, often occurring rather numerously. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



May 16, 1905, one seen, and heard calling, in our garden, Cambridge, W. Deane. 



May 25 — June 3. 

 June 5, 1875, one heard, Belmont, W. Brewster. 



August 25, 1884, one male' and two females 1 taken, Watertown, W. Brewster. 



August 28 — September 8. 

 September 9, 1875, one im. female (?f taken. Maple Swamp, W. Brewster. 



The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is one of the most silent and retiring of 



1 Male, no. 9488, females, nos. 9489 and 9490, collection of William Brewster. 



2 No. 1380, collection of William Brewster, 



