BIRDS—TYRANNINAE—EMPIDONAX ACADICUS. 
197 
EMPIDONAX ACADICUS, Baird. 
Small Green-crested Flycatcher. 
? Muscicapa acadica, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 947.— Latham, Index Orn. II, 1790, 489.— Vieili.ot, Ois. Ain. 
Sept. I, 1807, 71, (from Latham).— Audubon, Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 256 : V, 1839, 429 ; pi. 
144 — Ib. Birds Amcr. I, 1840, 221; pi. 62.— Nuttall, Man. I, 1832,208.— Giraud, Birds L. 
Island, 1844, 40. 
Muscicapa querula, Wilson, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 77 ; pi. xiii, f. 3, (not of Yieillot.) 
“ Platyrhynchus virescens, Vieillot.” 
Tyrannula acadica, Richardson, ? Bon. List. 
Tyrannus acadica, Nuttall, Man. I, 2d ed. 1840, 320. 
Sp. Ch.— The second and third quills are longest, and about equal ; the fourth a little shorter ; the first about equal to the 
fifth, and about .35 less than the longest. Tail even. The upper parts, with sides of the head and neck, olive green ; the crown 
very little if any darker. A yellowish white ring round the eye. The sides of the body under the wings like the back, but 
fainter olive ; a tinge of the same across the breast ; the chin, throat, and middle of the belly white ; the abdomen, lower tail 
and wing coverts, and sides of the body not covered by the wings pale greenish yellow. Edges of the first primary, seconda¬ 
ries, and tertials margined with dull yellowish white, most broadly on the latter. Two transverse bands of pale yellowish 
across the wings formed by the tips of the secondary and primary coverts, succeeded by a brown one. Tail light brown, mar¬ 
gined externally like the back. Upper mandible light brown above ; pale yellow beneath. In autumn the lower parts are 
more yellow. Length, 5.65 ; wing, 3.00 ; tail, 2.75. 
Hab. —Eastern United States to the Mississip . 
In this species the wing is rather long and quite acute, reaching about to the middle of the 
tail; the primaries about .90 of an inch shorter than the secondaries. The proportions do not 
vary much from that described, although the third quill is sometimes longest. The tail is 
almost exactly even, a little rounded on the sides. The tarsi are rather long, exceeding the 
middle toe. 
There is generally a tinge of reddish in the yellow bands of the wings, although most marked 
in autumn specimens. The under wing coverts are pale sulphur yellow, and the tertials and 
secondaries have the basal portion of the inner web entirely sulphur yellow. The yellow edges 
to the lesser quills do not extend as far as the wing coverts, but leave a well defined band of 
brown just below the yellowish. 
This species is very similar to E. traillii, but the upper parts are of a brighter and more 
uniform olive green, much like that of Vireo olivaceus. The feathers of the crown lack the 
darker centre. There is less of the olivaceous ash across the breast. The bands across the 
wing are brighter yellow. There is much more yellow at the base of the lesser quills. The 
wings are longer, both proportionally and absolutely. The primaries exceed the secondaries by 
nearly an inch, instead of by only about .70 ; the proportions of the quills are much the same. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
Sex an 
ag • 
Locality. 
When collected. 
Whence obtained. 
Collected by— 
Length. 
Stretch 
of wings 
Wing. 
1824 
Philadelphia .... 
S. F. Baird 
1089 
Spring of 1843 
_do___ ____ 
1225 
500 
3 
Chester county, Pa.. 
Washington, D. C... 
Savannah, Ga_. 
1841. 
7589 
9 
April 29, 1845 
1845. 
Wm. Hutton_ 
2395 
o Q 
R. F. Ttaird _ 
J. Leconte------ 
5. 60 
8. 50 
2. 70 
2396 
3 
1845. 
_„_do___ 
------do__ 
5.90 
9.00 
2. 90 
7416 
Cleveland, Ohio_ 
Dr. J. P. Kirtland. 
... 
