Dr. Hoy writes me that this bird, quite common about Racine some twenty-five years ago, has now almost entirely disappeared.
Near Washington Dr. Coues found this Flycatcher a common summer resident, the most abundant of the kind, and the only one that breeds there in any numbers. They arrive the last of April, and remain until the last of September.
A beautiful nest of this species was found by Mr. George O. Welch near Indianapolis, Indiana. It was fully identified, and the parent shot. This nest has a diameter of four inches, and a height of two. Its base is composed to a large extent of dried grasses, intermingled with masses of withered blossoms of different herbaceous plants. Above this is constructed a somewhat rudely interwoven nest, composed entirely of long, fine, wiry stems of grasses. The cavity is two inches wide and less than one in depth. The eggs, three in number, are exceedingly beautiful, and differ from all the eggs of this genus, having more resemblance to those of Contopi. They have an elongated oval shape, and are quite pointed at one end. They measure .78 by .56 of an inch. Their ground is a rich cream-color, tinged with a reddish-brown shading, and at the larger end the eggs are irregularly marked with scattered and vivid blotches of red and reddish-brown. The nest was found on the 3d of June.
Empidonax flaviventris, Baird.
YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER.
Tyrannula flaviventris, Wm. M. and S. F. Baird, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phila. I, July, 1843, 283.—Ib. Am. Journ. Science, April, 1844.—Aud. Birds Am. VII, 1844, 341, pl. ccccxc. Tyrannula pusilla (Swainson), Reinhardt, Vidensk. Meddel. for 1853, 1854, 82.—Gloger, Cab. Jour. 1854, 426. Empidonax hypoxanthus, Baird (provisional name for eastern specimens). Empidonax difficilis, Baird (provisional name for western). Empidonax flaviventris, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1859, 198.—Sclater, Catal. 1862, 229.—Maynard, B. E. Mass. 1870, 126.
Sp. Char. Second, third, and fourth quills nearly equal; first intermediate between fifth and sixth. Tail nearly even, slightly rounded. Tarsi long. Above bright olive-green (back very similar to that of Vireo noveboracensis); crown rather darker. A broad yellow ring round the eye. The sides of the head, neck, breast and body, and a band across the breast like the back, but lighter; the rest of the lower parts bright greenish sulphur-yellow; no white or ashy anywhere on the body. Quills dark brown; two bands on the wing formed by the tips of the primary and secondary coverts, the outer edge of the first primary and of the secondaries and tertials pale yellow, or greenish-yellow. The tail-feathers brown, with the exterior edges like the back. The bill dark brown above, yellow beneath. The feet black. In the autumn the colors are purer, the yellow is deeper, and the markings on the wings of an ochrey tint. Length, 5.15; wing, 2.83; tail, 2.45.
Hab. Eastern United States, and Eastern Middle America, south to Costa Rica. Localities: Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 122); Xalapa (Scl. Ibis, I, 441); Choctun, Dueñas (Scl. Catal. 1862, 230); Costa Rica (Lawr. IX, 114); Panama (Lawr. VIII, 63); Vera Cruz, winter, resident? (Sum. M. B. S. I, 557); San Antonio, Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 475).
Specimens from the eastern regions of North and Middle America, though varying slightly among themselves, all agree in the characters which distinguish them from the western series.
Habits. This well-marked species was first obtained in Carlisle, Penn., and described by the Bairds in 1843. It has since remained a comparatively rare and scattered species, and has been only seldom met with. I found it breeding in the vicinity of Halifax, and also among the Grand Menan Islands, and in both cases was so fortunate as to be able to obtain its nest and eggs. It has been found near Calais by Mr. Boardman, and its nest also procured. It has also been found breeding near Trenton, N. J., by Dr. Slack, and in a not distant locality in the same State by Dr. Abbott.