78 TTEANNID^. 



environs of the city of Mexico and thence southwards to La Parada and the highlands 

 of the State of Vera Cruz. Westwards of the plateau it is found near Patzcuaro and 

 Morelia, and in the Sierra Madre of Sonora. It has also been found at El Paso, and 

 thence northwards to Utah and Nevada, and also in most of the country lying to the 

 westward of the Rocky Mountains. Dr. Coues speaks of E. obscurus as migratory in 

 Arizona, arriving in March or April and leaving in October. Some further valuable 

 notes on this bird will be found in his ' Birds of the North-West,' which we have no 

 space to transcribe here. Mr. Henshaw says it is an abundant species in many localities 

 in the middle and southern regions of the United States, though in others it appears to 

 be absent. In summer it is a bird of the mountains, resorting to the deciduous trees 

 and bushes on the banks of streams, or, as in Arizona, the oaks. In other places it is 

 found in the barren pine-clad hills where there is no deciduous vegetation. In the 

 autumn it leaves the hills and may be met with in its journey southwards wherever 

 trees and bushes aflford it suitable shelter ^'^. 



The nest is placed in aspen bushes, and is, like that of E. minimus, compactly felted, 

 cup-shaped, composed chiefly of greyish fibres, and placed in a fork of an upright bi'anch 

 of a bush or small tree. The eggs are plain buffy-white. 



12. Empidonax affinis. 



Tyrannula affinis, Sw. Phil. Mag. new ser. i. p. 367 \ 

 Empidonax affinis, Salv. Cat. Strickl. Coll. p. 314 ^ 



Empidonax fulvipectus, Lawr. Ana. Lye. N. Y. x. p. 11'; Sal\r. Ibis, 1874, p. 310*; Baird, Brew., 

 & Ridgw. N. Am. B. ii. p. 310 «; Ibis, 1886, p. 468°; Man. N. Am. B. p. 344'. 



Praecedenti similis, sed omnino olivaceo, mento tantum albicante ; mandibula omnino flavida ut videtur distin- 

 guendus. Long, tota 5-2, alae 3-0, caudse 2'6, tarsi 0-7, rostri a rictu 0*55. (Descr. feminae ex Ciudad in 

 Durango. Mus. nostr.) 



(j' feminEe similis. 



Hob. Mexico, Tutuaca in Sonora {W. Lloyd), Ciudad in Durango {Forrer), Sierra de 

 Valparaiso de Zacatecas [Michardson), Amula, Omilteme, and Tepetlapa in Guerrero 

 {Mrs. H.H.Smith), city of Mexico {fide Lawrence ^), Chimalpa, Hacienda Eslava near 

 city oiM.eidco {Ferrari-Perez), La Parada {Boucard), Cinco Senores {GaleoUi^). 



Swainson's name Tyrannula affinis was given to a bird in Bullock's collection, stated 

 to have been obtained in the " maritime parts of Mexico." Various attempts to recog- 

 nize this name have been made. Mr. Sclater, in 1859, thought it possible that it might 

 refer to the bird he was then describing as Mitrephorus phceocercus ; and, in 1866 (Proc. 

 Ac. Phil.), Dr. Coues thought that his M. pallescens was perhaps meant. It was not 

 until 1882 thut Salvin examined Swainson's type and identified thereby a specimen 

 from Cinco Senores in Mexico in the Strickland collection at Cambridge, and referred 

 to it Mr. Lawrence's E. fulvipectus. We have since compared the Strickland bird with 

 a specimen compared with Mr. Lawrence's type, so that our identification oi E. fulvi- 

 pectus is hardly open to question. Unfortunately this identification has been entirely 



