24 
Coues on Nesting of Flycatchers in Missouri. 
about the larger end, where the spots are wreathed in one, but more 
generally distributed in three others ; the markings including some 
large, bold blotches in the latter. 
• Thus the nest of acadicus is decidedly different from that of trailli ; 
but the eggs of the two are not distinguishable with certainty. 
Empidonax trailli. The situation, materials, and whole style 
of architecture of these three nests are different from those of acadi- 
cus, and are identical with those of E. minimus (eggs of which latter 
are pure white, unmarked). They are built in each case on a 
stouter bough, in the upright crotch formed by two or several twigs 
springing up from the main stem ; being compact, thick-walled, and 
deeply-cupped structures, let firmly down into the crotch, — the twigs 
either grooving the walls, as in one instance, or imbedded in the 
substance of the nest, as in the other two cases. The outside di- 
ameter is nearly or about 3 inches, while the depth in one case is 
quite as much, but in the other two about half an inch less. The 
cavity is scarcely or about 2 inches, with a depth of fully 1-|- inches, 
so deeply cupped are these structures. In the smallest, neatest, 
and most globular specimen the brim is even contracted, so that 
the diameter a little ways down is greater than at the top. These 
city nests are stoutly built of slender grasses, rootlets, and a vari- 
ety of bleached vegetable substance disintegrated beyond recogni- 
tion. Two are lined with very fine grass stems or rootlets ; a third, 
with these and horse-hairs ; one has some bits of twine worked into 
the walls, and in another some large feathers, apparently from the 
poultry-yard, have been similarly used. The walls, and especially 
the flooring, are thick and compact, and the brim is firm.* One, 
with four eggs, was taken, June 14, from an oak-tree, at an eleva- 
* In transmitting the proofs of this article, Mr. Allen kindly sends me a 
New England nest of E. trailli, selected as an average example of a large series, 
and is at pains to indicate in a letter how much such specimens differ from 
Western ones; though it is to be observed that they nevertheless bear out the 
distinctions above given from E. acadicus, being thick deep cups, not thin 
flat saucers. Says Mr. Allen: “I could not understand your comparative 
diagnoses of nests of E. trailli and acadicus until Mr. Brewster showed me a 
series of nests of E. trailli from Ohio ; for in New England E. trailli builds an 
entirely different nest from what it does in Ohio and Missouri. The New 
England nests (Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont specimens) are scarcely 
distinguishable from the ordinary nest of Cyanospiza cyanea, and consequently 
suggest no comparison with the nest of E. minimus, they being bulky struc- 
tures of coarse materials, which no one would think could belong to the species 
