Coues on Nesting of Flycatchers in Missouri. 21 
the birds themselves apart, especially when we only study their 
dried skins, and when we come to their nests and eggs great caution 
is necessary to avoid mistakes. 
It is safe to say that Wilson’s, Nuttall’s, Audubon’s, Brewer’s, and 
the present writer’s published biographies contain some chaff with 
the wheat ; and it is not safe to rely entirely upon the accounts these 
authors have given in their respective wmrks, without verifying 
their accuracy in every particular by reference to the articles which 
have appeared in this Bulletin.* 
Let me premise, that the only Empidonax whose nests and eggs 
I have myself studied in the field, is E. minimus , a perfectly reliable 
account of which, as observed in Dakota, is given in “ The Birds of 
the Northwest.” Whatever other accounts I have published are 
compiled, or, at most, are original only in so far as my handling of 
cabinet specimens goes. 
Messrs. Purdie, Osborne, and Batchelder are severally at present 
of our most reliable authorities in the case of E. fiaviventris. 
Mr. H. W. Henshaw is the writer to whom we may turn with 
most confidence for information respecting the two other Eastern 
species, E. trailli and E. acadicus ; and one object of the present 
paper is to confirm and amplify his accurate observations. Another 
purpose to be subserved in this instance is to show how much the 
nidification of these species varies with circumstances (compare the 
foot-note beyond). 
From Mr. 0. Widmann, 4024 Carondelet Avenue, St. Louis, 
Missouri, I received last June an interesting letter relating to 
Traill’s and the Acadian Flycatchers, together with a welcome pres- 
ent of five pretty nests, three of the former and two of the latter 
species, each with its complement of nicely prepared and labelled 
eggs. These I wish to describe. But first let me give extracts 
from Mr. Widmann’s interesting letter : — 
u Dear Sir : — Allow me to present you with a few nests of Empid. 
trailli and acadicus , which by themselves may be of no value, but which 
* Henshaw on E. trailli and E. acadicus, I, April, 1876, pp. 14-17. — 
Purdie on E. trailli, as observed in Maine, I, Sept., 1876, pp. 75, 76. — 
Purdie on E. fiaviventris, III, Oct., 1878, pp. 166-168. — Osborne on the 
same, ibid., pp. 187, 188, and IV, Oct., 1879, pp. 240, 241. — Batchelder on 
the same, ibid., pp. 241, 242. — Hayward on a spotted egg of E. minimus [?], 
ibid., IV, April, 1879, p. 124. — See also Brewer on 8 species f Empidonax, 
Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., II, April, 1879, pp. 1 - 10. 
