EMPIDONAX MINIMUS : LEAST FLYCATCHER. 4I 



LEAST FLYCATCHER. 



Empidonax minimus Bd. 



Chars. Colors almost exactly as in traillij usually olive-gray 

 rather than olive-brown ; whole anterior parts often slightly 

 ashy ; wing-markings, eye-ring, and loral feathers plain grayish- 

 white ; feet black ; under mandible usually dusky. Smaller than 

 trailli, and not so stoutly built. Length, 4.80-5.50; extent, 

 7.40-8.30 ; wing, 2.60 or less ; tail about 2.25 ; bill less than 

 0.50 ; point of wing reaching only about 0.50 beyond the sec- 

 ondaries. 



In New England at large this little Flycatcher is the 

 most abundant of all the species, characteristic of no 

 special faunal area, but commonly and almost universally 

 distributed. On the whole, however, it is more numer- 

 ous in southern than in northern New England, and 

 may be entirely wanting in some sections of the latter, 

 where Traill's and the Yellow-bellied are the princi- 

 pal representatives. Compared with the other three, 

 it is next to the most southerly — the Acadian 

 scarcely reaching our boundaries, then the Least, 

 so plentiful to Massachusetts and decreasing in num- 

 bers northward — then Traill's, reversing the regions 

 of relative abundance — then the Yellow-bellied, not yet 

 found breeding except in Maine. The Least Flycatcher 

 enters Connecticut about the first of May, and soon be- 

 comes abundant and generally dispersed in orchards, 

 gardens, parks, and even in the heart of large cities, as 

 well as in woodland anywhere else, thus not particularly 

 affecting the swampy bushy places to which Traill's 

 habitually resorts. It may be known by circumstances 

 of its local distribution, and by its readily recognized 



