TRAILL'S FLYCATCHER. 
187 
Not but what a certain number pass us every year, but that it is quite difficult to tell just 
when they will pass and just where to find one for, like the other members of the genus, 
this Flycatcher migrates very rapidly and is withal somewhat eccentric in choice of local¬ 
ities in which to feed. I have found them on the upland among deciduous trees, in thick 
pines, and in swampy thickets. This was, however, when they were on the way to their 
summer homes, but when once settled in the woods of Northern New England, they almost 
always prefer the alder thickets which border the countless streams of that well watered 
region. 
It would be quite difficult to detect the presence of this small Flycatcher when the 
leaves are on the trees, were it not for its notes which are quite peculiar, sounding like the 
syllables Ice-wick , rather slowly given when compared with the che-beck of the Least Fly¬ 
catcher and are somewhat harsher. This lay is repeated about twice a minute during the 
earlier portion of the day, after which the bird becomes silent. While singing it is almost 
always perched upon some elevation but not so high as to render it observable as it is con¬ 
cealed by foliage. 
It is only in its chosen home in the mountain valley where the rushing sound of rap¬ 
idly flowing water fills the cool air, that the peculiar notes of this Flycatcher are heard. 
During the migration they are silent; consequently they are, as already intimated, not easy 
to find. Yet as they are seldom found in other than thick woods, it is well to examine 
carefully any small Flycatcher seen there for it will quite likely be this species. The 
Least Flycatcher does occasionally venture into the wooded districts but it is by far a more 
nervous and active bird than Traill’s which although it has a similar habit of jerking the 
tail, so noticeable in the common species, yet this is done less frequently. Besides this, 
Traill’s Flycatcher is apt to perch lower, often being found in thickets only a few feet high, 
and I have shot them when they were sitting within a foot of the ground. As related, 
they are not constant to any particular kind of woodland during the spring migration, but 
in autumn I have nearly always found them in the wooded lowland and in the vicinity 
of water. 
In spring, Traill’s Flycatcher appears in Pennsylvania about the middle of May, 
reaching Massachusetts some two weeks later and arriving in its summer resort about the 
first week of June. They soon commence the duties of nest building, placing the domi¬ 
cile in an upright fork of an alder not far from the ground, according to Mr. Brewster who 
has obtained several. The eggs are laid about the last of June. When the young appear, 
the adults exhibit considerable solicitude, flying about the intruder and reiterating their 
cries quite rapidly. The fledgelings leave the nest in August and accompany their parents 
for a time, but scatter when migrating and I have obtained solitary individuals in Massa¬ 
chusetts as late as the eleventh of September. But the southward march is even more 
hurried than the spring migration and by the first of October, they have all departed, at 
least from the Northern and Middle sections of the United States. I do not think that 
this Flycatcher ever appears in Florida; in fact all of the members of the present genus are 
rarely found in the latter named section, as in migrating they pursue a westerly course, 
keeping along the Mississippi Yalley, and so on through Texas, into Mexico. 
