26 TYRANNIDiE : FLYCATCHERS. 



OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. 



CONTOPUS BOREALIS (Sw.) Bd. 



Chars. Head sub-crested ; feet extremely small ; tarsus shorter 

 than middle toe and claw ; pointed wings much longer than the 

 emarginate tail. Length, 7.00-8.00 ; wing, 3.90-4.30 ; tail about 

 3.00; tarsus, middle toe and claw, together, only about 1.25; 

 bill, 0.66-0.75. Dark olive-brown, usually darkest on the crown, 

 and palest on the sides ; chin, throat, belly, under tail-coverts, 

 and middle line of breast, white, or whitish ; wings and tail black- 

 ish, with whitish edging of the inner quills ; upper mandible and 

 feet black. The olive-brown of the under parts has a peculiar 

 streaky appearance; there is a tuft of fluffy white feathers on the 

 flank. 



This is much the largest of the olivaceous Flycatchers, 

 nearly equalling a Myiarchiis in dimensions; but its form 

 is strictly that of the Wood Pewee. Though not charac- 

 teristic of any faunal area, it is more abundant in the 

 Canadian than in the Alleghanian, and in the breeding 

 season quite rare in the Carolinian; that is to say, it 

 grows more and more numerous in summer as we pro- 

 ceed northward in New England. Thus, for Connecticut, 

 Mr. Merriam furnished in 1877 the first record subsequent 

 to the doubtful one made in 1843 by Linsley : "Rare; 

 probably a few breed in the more northern and hilly 

 parts of the state, as they are known to do in Massa- 

 chusetts. On the i8th of October, 1875, attracted by 

 its characteristic note, which is a short whistle, resem- 

 bling the syllables o-wheo, o-wheo, o-wheo, uttered several 

 times in succession, with the voice falling on the last 0, 

 I caught a momentary glimpse of one, perched on the 

 top of a tall tree ; but the bird was very shy, and I did 

 not succeed in getting a shot. Mr. Erwin I. Shores 



