196 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
For a period of about five months, or from early in May until late in 
September, the Acadian Flycatcher is a common resident in Pennsyl¬ 
vania, frequenting’ chiefly woodland. This species is somewhat shy 
and difficult to approach, and like the Cuckoo or Yellow-breasted Chat, 
is oftener heard than seen. I have heard this bird called “Hick-up” 
from its peculiar note. The shallow, saucer-shaped and loosely made 
nest is placed usually on a drooping’ and forked branch of a tree in the 
forest, a dog-wood, beech or hickory generally being selected. It is 
composed of blossoms, g-rasses, fine rootlets or line pieces of bark. 
The majority of nests which I have found in the vicinity of West Ches¬ 
ter, Pa., were built entirely of blossoms. The nests are rarely more 
than eight or ten feet from the ground, and are so open at the bottom 
that the eggs can readily be seen from below. The eggs, usually three 
in number, are very similar in size, etc., to those of the Wood Pewee— 
they are creamy-wliite, spotted with reddish-brown. During the late 
summer and autumn months this species subsists to a limited extent on 
various kinds of berries. 
The food materials of seven of these birds are given in the following 
table: 
NO. 
Date. 
Locality. 
Food-Materials. 
1 
May 10, 1879. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Beetles. 
2 
June 11. 1880. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Large Hies and larva;. 
3 
June 20, 1880. 
Chester county, Pa... 
Various insects. 
4 
Aug. 20, 1882. 
Chester county, Pa.. . . • *. 
Berries. 
5 
Aug. 30. 1882. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Beetles and Hies. 
6 
Sept. 20, 1882. 
Chester county. Pa. 
Insects. 
7 
May 20, 1883,. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Beetles. 
Empidonax pusillus traillii (Aud.). 
Traill’s Flycatcher. 
Description. 
“Upper parts dark olive-green, lighter under the wings, and duller and more 
tinged with asb on nape and sides of the neck ; center of the crown feathers brown ; 
a pale yellowish-white ring (in some specimens altogether white) round the eye ; 
loral feathers mixed with white ; chin and throat white ; the breast and sides of 
throat light-asli tinged with olive, its intensity varying in individuals, the former 
sometimes faintly tinged with olive ; sides of the breast much like the back ; mid¬ 
dle of the belly nearly white; sides of the belly, abdomen and the lower tail-coverts 
sulphur-yellow ; the quills and tail-feathers dark-brown, as dark (if not more so) as 
these parts in C. virens ; two olivaceous yellow white bands on the wing, formed 
by the tips of the first and second coverts, succeeded by a brown one ; the edge of 
the first primary and of secondaries and tertials a little lighter shade of the same ; 
the outer edge of the tail feathers like the back, that of the lateral one rather lighter ; 
bill above dark brown, dull brownish beneath ; iris brown. Length nearly Cinches; 
extent about 8.75 inches.”— B. B. of N. A. 
Habitat. —Eastern North America, breeding from the Middle States (southern 
Illinois and Missouri) northward ; in winter south to Central America. 
Traill’s Flycatcher, a somewhat suspicious frequenter of thickets, near 
