380 BIRDS—TYRANNIDA. 
HMPIDONAX FLAVIVENTRIS Baird. 
Yellow-bellied Mlycatcher. 
Eimpidonax flaviventris, KIRKPATRICK, Ohio Farmer, ix, 1860, 189.—WHEATON, Ohio Agric. 
Rep. for 1860, 362, 373; Reprint, 1861, 4, 15; Food df Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. 
for 1874, 568; Reprint, 1875, 8 LANG@pDon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 10; Revised List, 
Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 177; Reprint, 11. 
Tyrannula flaviventris, W. WM. and S. F. Barrp, Proc. Phila. Acad., i, 1843, 283. 
Empidonax flaviventris, BAIRD, Birds N. A., 1858, 198. 
Above olive-creen, clear centinuous and uniform as in acadicus, or even brighter; below 
not merely yellowish, as in the foregoing, but emphatically yellow, bright and pure 
on the belly, shaded on the sides and anteriorly with a paler tint of the color of the back ; 
 eye-ring and wing-markings yellow; ander mandible yellow; feet biack. In respect of 
color, this species differs materially from all the rest; nome of them even in their 
autumnal yellowest quite match it. Size of Trails or rather less; feet proportioned as 
in acadicus ; bill nearly as in minimus, but rather larger; ist quill usually equal to Sth. 
Habitat, North America at large. South through Mexico and Central America to New 
Grenada. . 
Common spring and fall migrant in May, August and September. Fre-' 
quents thickets in woodland and gardens of the city. The Yellow-hellied 
Flycatcher, though rather shy and retiring in its habits presents several 
points of interest not shared by other members of the genus, , It isseldom 
found perched near the extremity of limbs watching for or capturing 
flying insects, but is generally seen in the midst of a low thicket or fence 
row, and at the first intimation that it is an object of observation, seeks 
further concealment by hiding near the ground and remaining motion- 
less. None of the family are such adepts at concealment, its habits in 
this respect resembling those of the Connecticut and Mourning Warblers. 
On one occasion while walking in the woods, I discovered a pair of 
bizds busily engaged in feeding on some elm saplings. Alighting near 
the bottom of the trunk they hopped from one to another of the alternate 
twigs, ascending spirally. Meantime they gathered their food, which I 
soon discovered to be small black ants. I watched this procedure for half 
an hour, unable to identify the birds. Hoping they might prove an 
extralimital species with which I was not acquainted, I returned in | 
the afternoon with a gun. The birds were not feeding, but in the trees 
near by I detected what appeared to be the same species. Great was 
my surprise when securing them to find they were Yellow-bellied Fly- 
catchers. An examination of their stomach revealed large quantities of 
the black ants, and I have no doubt they were the birds which I had 
seen feeding, in that heterodox way for flycatchers, in the morning. 
I am inclined to think these actions are not unusual to the birds, and 
