YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER. 427 



Dr. Wheaton considered it a common migrant through Ohio, 

 but observers in Ontario have met with it so seldom as to think 

 it rare, though Ridgway says the bird is common in Illinois, and 

 Thompson found it in Manitoba. 



The notes of this species have caused much discussion, — some 

 writers claiming for it an individuality, and others insisting that it 

 utters nothing different from the notes of traillii or minimus. The 

 kil-lic of flaviventris seems, to my ear, quite different from the 

 ke-wink of Traill's, — which is rather sibilant, and is delivered 

 with a rising inflection, — and differs also from the che-bec of the 

 Least Flycatcher. While the latter delivers the last two notes 

 abruptly and makes more or less pause after each couplet, the 

 Yellow-bellied whistles four notes, kil-lic kil-lic, with but a short 

 pause — a mere rest — between each pair, and delivers the notes 

 with a trifle less abruptness. Dr. Dwight thinks the song "is more 

 suggestive of a sneeze on the bird's part, than of any other sound 

 with which it may be compared." 



Other notes of the present species resemble pea and pe-we-yea. 

 These are heard when a pair are in close companionship. They 

 are soft, sweet, cooing-notes, delivered in a plaintive tone that 

 suggests the tender pathos of the Pewee's. 



Note. — The Fork-tailed Flycatcher {Milvulus tyran- 

 nus), a bird of Central and South America, has occasionally 

 wandered north, and been taken in Mississippi, Kentucky, and 

 New Jersey. 



Also a few examples of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 

 {Milvulus forficatiis'), which rarely appears north or east of 

 Texas, have been seen in Virginia, New Jersey, Connecticut, 

 Ontario, and Manitoba, and one wandered to the shores of 

 Hudson Bay. 



