SONGLESS BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 229 
CHAPTER VI. 
SONGLESS BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 
FLYCATCHERS, 
This family consists of crested songless birds, that watch 
from dead limbs, posts, or other exposed perches, and take 
their prey mainly on the wing. They usually sit rather 
upright, with tail drooping, and wings in readiness for 
instant flight. The structure of the Flycatcher’s bill and 
mouth is admirably adapted for the capture of winged insects. 
The bill is wide at the base, and the gape is deep and sur- 
rounded by so-called “ bristles,” which are of service in en- 
trapping flying insects. While some species take nearly all 
their food on the wing, most of them also pick up insects 
from trees, shrubbery, and even from the ground. 
Nine species are found in Massachusetts, but only four of 
these are generally common summer residents; the others 
are either migrants, rare, or casual or local residents. 
Least Flycatcher. Chebec. 
Empidonax minimus. 
Length. — Between five and five and one-half inches. 
Adult. — Above, usually dark olive-gray, often with a tinge of brown; under 
parts nearly white, shaded on the sides like the back; yellowish on belly; 
a broad eye ring and two wing bars yellowish-white or grayish-white. 
Nest.— A soft cup; usually in a crotch of bush or tree, from five-to forty feet 
from the ground. 
eggs. — White. 
Season. — May to August. 
This is the common little Flycatcher of the orchard, vil- 
lage, and roadside. Its usual note, chebec’, one of the char- 
acteristic sounds of May, comes before the apple blossoms, 
as a promise of summer. Few of these birds are seen early 
in May, while the weather is cool; but the first warm, south 
wind usually brings a multitude, and nearly every orchard 
harbors a pair or more. The bird sits quite upright, occa- 
sionally throwing up its head as if to sing, as it utters its 
