THE LEAST FLYCATCHER. 313 



Mr. H. W. Henshaw also took a specimen near Denver, Colorado, on May 

 17, 1873, and I believe more careful investigation will yet show that the Least 

 Flycatcher is an occasional summer resident as far west as the eastern foothills 

 of the Rocky Mountains. 



The most southern breeding record in the eastern United States I have 

 been able to find is one by Mr. John C. Cairns, in Buncombe County, North 

 Carolina, where he reports it as rare, stating: "I have seen but one pair, and 

 found their nest. It was placed in the fork of a persimmon tree, 20 feet from 

 the ground, and contained four fresh eggs." It also breeds sparingly through- 

 out the mountain regions of southern Pennsylvania, the Virginias, etc. 



Mr. Witmer Stone writes me from Philadelphia, Pennsjdvania, under date 

 of April 21, 1892: "I recently received a nest and eggs of Empidonax minimus 

 from near Trenton, New Jersey, which I believe is the most southern record of 

 the breeding of this species in New Jersey." 



Mr. S. N. Rhoads also records this species as nesting in Delaware County, 

 Pennsylvania, on June 1, 1881, securing the parents.^ 



It is a common summer resident throughout the whole of New England, 

 New York, northern Pennsylvania, northern Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, 

 Wisconsin, and Minnesota, as well as in the southern portions of the Provinces 

 of Ontario and Saskatchewan. Neither does it appear to be rare still farther 

 north, as there are several breeding records by Messrs. R. Kennicott and J. 

 Lockhart from Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake; by Mr. B. R. Ross, from 

 Fort Simpson, and by Miss Elizabeth Taylor, near Lake Athabasca, all in the 

 Northwest Territory. 



The Least Flycatcher arrives at its summer hamits in the more southern 

 parts of its range about the second week in May, and is the commonest of our 

 smaller TyrannidcB. It prefers the more open and cultivated country to the 

 forests, and is only found on the outskirts of these. Like many other species, 

 it readily adapts itself to the changed conditions of things, and is equally well 

 contented in the immediate vicinity of human habitations, and even in villages, 

 as in more retired places. Its favorite resorts are orchards, hedgerows, the 

 shade trees and shrubbery along country roads, small streams, pastures, etc. A 

 person will not have to search long in such places to find it, or at least to hear 

 its familiar "che-beck," which in an early morning's walk can be heard in every 

 orchard and from almost every clump of trees bordering the roads and lanes. 

 It is a most restless little creature, now flitting from branch to branch of an 

 apple tree, peering here and there, then suddenly darting after some insect 

 which it has disturbed by its movements, uttering constantlv a sharp "twit, twit, 

 twit" as it moves about, varied with its ordinary call of "che-beck," which it 

 never seems to tire of uttering; another one of its notes sounds something like 

 "s-lick, s-lick." During the mating season the male may sometimes be seen 

 hovering over a tree in which its mate is hidden, uttering at the same time a 

 low, twittering warble, like " whit-we-we ; " at this time it is scarcely ever at 



' Bulletin Nuttall Ornithological Club, Vol. VII, 1882, p. 55. 



