diff --git a/mercurial/encoding.py b/mercurial/encoding.py
--- a/mercurial/encoding.py
+++ b/mercurial/encoding.py
@@ -16,7 +16,9 @@ try:
         # On darwin, getpreferredencoding ignores the locale environment and
         # always returns mac-roman. We override this if the environment is
         # not C (has been customized by the user).
-        locale.setlocale(locale.LC_CTYPE, '')
+        lc = locale.setlocale(locale.LC_CTYPE, '')
+        if lc == 'UTF-8':
+            locale.setlocale(locale.LC_CTYPE, 'en_US.UTF-8')
         encoding = locale.getlocale()[1]
     if not encoding:
         encoding = locale.getpreferredencoding() or 'ascii'
diff --git a/mercurial/patch.py b/mercurial/patch.py
--- a/mercurial/patch.py
+++ b/mercurial/patch.py
@@ -63,6 +63,10 @@ def extract(ui, fileobj):
 
         subject = msg['Subject']
         user = msg['From']
+        if not subject and not user:
+            # Not an email, restore parsed headers if any
+            subject = '\n'.join(': '.join(h) for h in msg.items()) + '\n'
+
         gitsendmail = 'git-send-email' in msg.get('X-Mailer', '')
         # should try to parse msg['Date']
         date = None
diff --git a/mercurial/windows.py b/mercurial/windows.py
--- a/mercurial/windows.py
+++ b/mercurial/windows.py
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ def _removedirs(name):
         head, tail = os.path.split(head)
     while head and tail:
         try:
-            if osutil.listdir(name):
+            if osutil.listdir(head):
                 return
             os.rmdir(head)
         except:
diff --git a/tests/test-import b/tests/test-import
--- a/tests/test-import
+++ b/tests/test-import
@@ -345,3 +345,23 @@ hg init oddcreate
 cd oddcreate
 hg import --no-commit ../create.patch
 cat foo
+
+echo % 'first line mistaken for email headers (issue 1859)'
+hg init emailconfusion
+cd emailconfusion
+cat > a.patch <<EOF
+module: summary
+
+description
+
+
+diff -r 000000000000 -r 9b4c1e343b55 test.txt
+--- /dev/null
++++ b/a
+@@ -0,0 +1,1 @@
++a
+EOF
+hg import -d '0 0' a.patch
+hg parents -v
+cd ..
+
diff --git a/tests/test-import.out b/tests/test-import.out
--- a/tests/test-import.out
+++ b/tests/test-import.out
@@ -295,3 +295,16 @@ applying a.patch
 % create file when source is not /dev/null
 applying ../create.patch
 a
+% first line mistaken for email headers (issue 1859)
+applying a.patch
+changeset:   0:5a681217c0ad
+tag:         tip
+user:        test
+date:        Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+files:       a
+description:
+module: summary
+
+description
+
+
diff --git a/tests/test-remove b/tests/test-remove
--- a/tests/test-remove
+++ b/tests/test-remove
@@ -108,3 +108,12 @@ remove -A test
 echo % dir, options -Af
 rm test/bar
 remove -Af test
+
+echo 'test remove dropping empty trees (issue1861)'
+mkdir -p issue1861/b/c
+echo x > issue1861/x
+echo y > issue1861/b/c/y
+hg ci -Am add
+hg rm issue1861/b
+hg ci -m remove
+ls issue1861
diff --git a/tests/test-remove.out b/tests/test-remove.out
--- a/tests/test-remove.out
+++ b/tests/test-remove.out
@@ -111,3 +111,8 @@ R test/foo
 ./foo
 ./test/foo
 2 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved
+test remove dropping empty trees (issue1861)
+adding issue1861/b/c/y
+adding issue1861/x
+removing issue1861/b/c/y
+x