THE LITTLE FLYOATCHEE, 307 



ground. In Colorado Mr. Denis Grale has found this species breeding in small 

 alder bushes. A nest and five eggs, one of these being the egg of a Cowbird, 

 were taken by him July 2, 1889, at an altitude of 5,500 feet, and presented to 

 the United States National Museum collection; and in Colorado the Little 

 Flycatcher seems to be not infrequently imposed upon by this parasite, as he 

 has taken several nests containing one of their eggs. 



Until quite recently the birds found breeding throughout the Mississippi 

 Valley, in Missouri, Illinois, etc., have generally been referred to Empidonax 

 pusillus traillii, and my attention was first drawn to this discrepancy by Dr. A. 

 K. Fisher, who showed me a perfectly typical breeding female taken by Mr. W. 

 S. Catleigh, near Canton, Illinois, on June 25, 1894, which is clearly referable 

 to Empidonax pusillus, and other such instances have since then come under my 

 observation, establishing without a doubt the correctness of the Doctor's views, 

 and compelling me to rewrite my articles on these birds. Although not quite 

 positive regarding the Ohio birds, I feel certain that these will also be found to 

 be referable to this species, and the subjoined notes from some of my Eastern 

 correspondents are all much more likely to refer to Empidonax pusillus than to 

 Empidonax pusillus traillii, but I prefer not to alter them. 



Mr. Lynds Jones, of Oberlin, Ohio, writes me: "I have lived in a locality 

 where Traill's Flycatcher was common. I met with it first on the site of an old 

 locust grove where the young sprouts were allowed to grow up; the ground was 

 low and marshy, and elder and willow bushes 'grew in profusion, together with 

 Ambrosia here it nested in willows close to the ground. Later I learned to 

 look for this bird elsewhere, and found it also in thickets of hazel and small 

 shrubs, often a quarter of a mile from water, where the nest was placed in the 

 darkest parts of these thickets. I also found it nesting commonly in white- 

 willow hedges and in the shrubbery found along the banks of streams. If 

 possible, thickets are selected where cattle do not run, so that vines and bushes 

 are permitted to grow in wild profusion, and in such localities wild-plum 

 bushes are frequently used as nesting sites. The nest is usually placed from 1 8 

 inches to 5 feet from the ground and well concealed. Its call note, sounding like 

 ' whee-chd^,' is uttered at short intervals during the mating season, and at longer 

 intervals in the summer." 



Mr. "W. E. Loucks, of Peoria, Illinois, writes me: "Traill's Flycatcher is a 

 common summer resident here, very abundant in the river bottoms, but it is also 

 found sparingly in the uplands. I consider it a somewhat silent bird, frequenting 

 the thick growths of small trees which either grow in or near the water or in 

 damp situations. It is most abundant in the heavy growth of willows in the 

 bottoms, and many nest here." 



Mr. Robert Ridgway tells me that in southern Illinois it frequents rather 

 open prairie country interspersed with low shrubbery. Mr. Otto Widmann, of 

 St. Louis, Missouri, in a letter to Dr. Elliott Coues, published in the "Bulletin 

 of the Nuttall Ornithological Club" (Vol. V, 1880, p. 22), makes the following 

 statement: "It is common almost everywhere outside the forest, not only along 



