FLYCATCHERS 19» 



siimetimes of Spanish "moss." The eggs, 3 or 4 in number, 

 may usually be seen through the nest from beneath. 



Food habits. — ^Examination of 100 stomachs of this bird in 

 the Biological Survey shows that its food consists almost en- 

 tirely of insects. The animal portion constituted 97 per cent 

 of the whole; of this only about 3 per cent was made up of 

 spiders and millipeds, the remainder being insects. Wasps, 

 bees, and ants are the most important item, furnishing 40 per 

 cent of the bird's food. Moths and caterpillars are next in 

 importance and amount to nearly 19 per cent. Beetles are 

 frequently eaten and grasshoppers and crickets occasionally. 

 A small amount of wild fruit is consumed.^ 



TRAILL FLYCATCHER: Empidonax trailln traiUii 

 (Audubon) .* 



State records. — The Traill flycatcher is probably a regular 

 but rather uncommon migrant in certain parts of the State, 

 but it has been detected only once — a single individual which 

 I saw in a hedge bordering a field at South Florence, May 7, 

 1912. I watched the bird at close range for several minutes 

 but was unable to secure it. 



General habits. — Like the other small flycatchers, this 

 species is difficult to identify, except by aid of its notes, which 

 are characteristic. Its ordinary call note, which answers also 

 for a song, is a three-syllabled utterance which has been writ- 

 ten, eaze-we-up. It frequents alder thickets and other low 

 growths along streams and in wet meadows. 



LEAST FLYCATCHER: Empidormx minimus 

 (W. M. andS. F.Baird). 



State records. — The least flycatcher probably occurs regu- 

 larly in migration in Alabama, but is apparently rare, as we 

 searched for it several seasons before finding any. The only 

 record is that of a single bird collected by the writer in a 

 hedge in a field close to the south bank of the Tennessee River 

 near Muscle Shoals, April 24, 1914. 



IBcal, F. E. L., Biol. Surv. Bull. 44, pp. 58-60, 1912. 



•Empidcnax trailli alnorum of the A. O. U. Check-hst ; for change of name see The 

 Auk, vol. 36, p. 268, 1919. 



