OF VIRGINIA 187 
grasses, fiber and rootlets, lined with fine grasses or fiber. 
Three eggs is a full set, a rich creamy-white, sparingly 
spotted or blotched with reddish-brown, mostly on the 
larger end. Size, .75x.55. Fresh eggs May 31st to June 
5th. Only one brood during the season. They arrive 
about May 5th and depart the last week in September. 
Like the other flycatchers, their food consists of various 
species of bugs, beetles, wasps, ants, moths and cater- 
pillars. One readily sees they are a most beneficial bird 
to agriculture by helping to keep down these pests. 
[467]. Empidonax minimus (Baird). Least 
Flycatcher. 
Raner.—Breeds in Canadian and Transition zones from 
west central Mackenzie, southern Keewatin, Quebec, and 
Cape Breton Island south to central Montana, eastern Wy- 
oming, central Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey, and in the Alleghenies to North Carolina; in 
migration west to eastern Colorado, and central Texas; 
winters from norteastern Mexico and Yucatan to Panama 
and Peru; accidental in Grand Cayman Island, West 
Indies. 
This bird is quite common in our interior where it 
breeds abundantly in the orchards and shade trees. 
Professor Smyth reports it as arriving in the vicinity of 
Blacksburg by March 19th, and migrating southward the 
latter part of August. My father found it rare at Harri- 
sonburg. Like all the smaller flycatchers, they are sociable 
birds, and pleasing to have around one’s premises; the 
good they do in destroying multitudes of insects can 
