EMPIDONAX ACADICUS : ACADIAN FLYCATCHER. 33 



and I have therefore taken it from the Hst " (Pr. Best. 

 Soc, xvii, 187s, p. 452). 



In 1876, in a paper "on two Empidonaces, traillii and 

 acadicus" (Bull. Nutt. Club, i, 1876, pp. 14-17), the sub- 

 ject was well handled by Mr. Henshaw, with special 

 reference to the differences between the species named 

 in geographical distribution, nesting, and eggs. Then, 

 after it had been made out to every one's satisfaction 

 that the bird had never been known to occur in 

 New England, the claim of this characteristic com- 

 ponent of the Carolinian fauna to a place among 

 the birds of New England was immediately proven by 

 Mr. C. H. Merriam, who marked it in his list as 

 "a rare summer visitant from the middle states," add- 

 ing that " it may breed in the Connecticut Valley " 

 as is doubtless the case. "It affords me great pleas- 

 ure," he continues, "to be able, through the kind- 

 ness of Mr. Erwin I. Shores, to replace this species 

 among the birds of New England. As is well known, 

 it was formerly included in [nearly] all New England 

 lists, but, as shown by Dr. Coues, Mr. H. W. Henshaw, 

 and others, the records were founded on erroneous iden- 

 tifications — the bird having been mistaken for E. mini- 

 mus or Traillii, generally the former. . . . Hence it 

 was with a peculiar sense of gratification that I received, 

 a few days since, an unmistakable example of the species, 

 from Mr. Shores, who relates that he shot it in ' Suffield, 

 Conn., June 24th, 1874, in a piece of woods known as 

 Beech Swamp.' For the benefit of those who may not 

 be disposed to accept my identification in so important a 

 matter, and to avoid all possibility of mistake, I at once 

 sent the bird to my friend, Mr. Robert Ridgway, of the 

 Smithsonian Institute, and he pronounces it to he. a 



