LAND BIRDS. 403 
resident at Negaunee, Marquette county, and breeds there. Max M. Peet 
records a pair seen in a tamarack swamp on Isle Royale, July 14, 1905, 
and the female taken. Also another pair found in a cedar swamp July 
26 (Adams’ Rep., Mich. Geol. Surv., 1908, 359). 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult: Upper parts dark olive green, top of head little if any darker; under parts 
mainly pale sulphur yellow, especially along the median line; sides of breast plain olive, 
this color sometimes extending entirely across the breast and along the sides; two yellowish 
white wing-bars formed by tips of greater and middle coverts; secondaries usually edged 
with yellowish; tail olive brown; upper mandible dark brown, lower pinkish or yellowish 
white; iris brown; feet black. 
Young: Similar but duller, the wing-bands yellower. 
Male: Length 5.10 to 5.80 inches; wing 2.55 to 2.75; tail 2.10 to 2.30; culmen .48 to .59. 
Female: Wing 2.40 to 2.50 inches; tail 2 to 2.25. 
184. Acadian Flycatcher. Empidonax virescens (Vieillot). (465) 
Synonyms: Green-crested Flycatcher, Small Green-crested Flycatcher, Green Fly- 
catcher.—Platyrhynchos virescens, Vieill. 1818.—Muscicapa querula, Wilson.—Tyrannula 
acadica, Bonap.—Empidonax acadicus, Baird, Coues, B. B & R., Nehrling, Bendire, and 
others——Empidonax virescens, A. O. U. Check-list, 1895. 
Not to be separated from the Alder Flycatcher, or even with certainty 
from the Least and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers, except by the expert. 
Its note and its nest and eggs are alike distinctive, but the note is not easily 
described and the nest is seen much less often than the bird. 
Distribution.—Eastern United States, north to southern New York and 
southern Michigan, west to the Plains, south to Cuba and Costa Rica. Rare 
or casual in southern New England. 
Throughout the southern half of the Lower Peninsula this flycatcher 
is generally distributed and a rather common inhabitant of upland woods, 
particularly beech and maple. It is nowhere abundant, yet it is seldom 
that any beech and maple grove of a dozen acres does not contain one or 
more pairs of these birds. It seems to prefer the deep woods, and its favorite 
haunts are the more or less leafless spaces midway between the earth and 
the leafy crowns of the forest trees above. Here it sits, very much like 
the Wood Pewee, darting from its favorite perch on a dead limb to capture 
passing insects and at intervals uttering its sharp and characteristic note 
which Bendire describes as ‘‘resembling ‘wick-up’ or ‘sick-up’ interspersed 
now and then with a sharp ‘queep-queep’ or ‘chier-queep,’ the first syllable 
very quickly uttered.” ; 
The nest is peculiar, being frail, basket-like, yet shallow, and almost 
always partly pensile. It is slightly built of slender twigs, rootlets and 
grasses, often snugly fastened with cobwebs, and frequently decorated 
with catkins of various trees. It is placed invariably on a horizontal spray 
or drooping branch near the tip, most often on beech, maple or dogwood 
(Cornus), but also on witch-hazel, hickory, oak and other trees. It is seldom 
more than a dozen feet from the ground, often within reach of the hand, 
and the bottom usually so thin that the eggs can be seen through it. These 
are usually three, but may be either two or four. They are creamy or 
buffy white, marked with specks and spots of different shades of brown, 
mainly about the larger end. They average .71 by .53 inches. 
This bird arrives from the south at about the same time as the Wood 
Pewee, and nests with eggs are found most often between June Ist and 12th. 
