COMMUTER TAKES EVASIVE ACTION WHEN SIGHTING ACR.

Narrative

WHILE IN CRUISE FLT ON A VFR TRIP FROM ALB TO ACY WE ENCOUNTERED A NEAR MISS SITUATION WITH ANOTHER AIRLINE'S ACFT; I BELIEVE A LGT. MY FLT HAD BEEN OPERATING VFR WHILE OBTAINING VFR FLT ADVISORIES IN SUCCESSION FROM ALB DEP; ZBW; AND THEN NY DEP. AT THE APPROX LOCATION AS SPECIFIED ABOVE WE HAD JUST CONTACTED AND HAD BEEN GIVEN A SQUAWK CODE FROM NY DEP ON FREQ 120.4. WE HAD NOT BEEN RADAR IDENTED VERBALLY BY THAT CTLR YET. THE CTLR WAS MODERATELY BUSY WITH OTHER AIRBORNE TFC AS PERCEIVED BY MYSELF. MY FO VISUALLY POINTED OUT THE LGT AT OUR 9 O'CLOCK POS AND I PUSHED OVER TO START A DSCNT. THE ACR FLT HAD SEEN US ALSO AND RPTED TO ATC AFTERWARDS THAT HE HAD INITIATED A STEEP CLB. AREAS CONTRIBUTING TO THE PROBLEM WERE: 1) THE CTLR'S WORKLOAD; 2) WE HAD JUST BEEN GIVEN A SQUAWK AND WERE NOT RADAR IDENTED; 3) LOWER SCATTERED CLOUDS CONTRIBUTING TO SCANNING PROBLEMS IN PICKING UP OTHER ACFT; 4) A LOWERING CEILING FURTHER S OF OUR POS WHICH WAS HAVING THE EFFECT OF MY SPENDING TIME OUT THE COCKPIT STRAIGHT AHEAD OF MY ACFT.