This species has the constant habit of flirting its expanded tail from side to side as it runs along the branches, with its head levelled almost in a line with its body; occasionally shooting off after winged insects, in a downward zig-zag direction, and with admirable dexterity, snapping its bill as it descends. Its notes are few and feeble, repeated at short intervals as it darts among the foliage; having at some times a resemblance to the sounds sic sic saic; at others of weesy weesy weesy; which last seems to be its call for the female, while the former appears to be its most common note. BLUE-GRAY FLYCATCHER. [Plate XVIII.-Fig. 5.] Motacilla cærulea, TURTON, Syst. 1, p. 612.-Blue Flycatcher, EwD. Pl. 302.-Regulus griseus, the little Bluish Gray Wren, BARTRAM, p. 291.—Le figuier gris de fer, BUFF. v, p. 309.— Cerulean Warbler, Arct. Zool. 11, No. 299.—LATH. Syn. IV, p. 490, No. 127.-PEALE'S Museum, No. 6829. THIS diminutive species, but for the length of the tail, would rank next to our Humming-bird in magnitude. It is a very dexterous Flycatcher, and has also something of the manners of the Titmouse, with whom, in early spring and fall, it frequently associates. It arrives in Pennsylvania from the south about the middle of April; and about the beginning of May builds its nest, which it generally fixes among the twigs of a tree, sometimes at the height of ten feet from the ground, sometimes fifty feet high, on the extremities of the tops of a high tree in the woods. This nest is formed of very slight and perishable materials, the husks of buds, stems of old leaves, withered blossoms of weeds, down from the stalks of fern, coated on the outside with gray lichen, and lined with a few horse hairs. Yet in this frail receptacle, which one would think scarcely sufficient to admit the body of the owner, and sustain even its weight, does the female Cow-bird venture to deposit her egg; and to the management of these pigmy nurses leaves the fate of her helpless young. The motions of this little bird are quick; he seems always on the look out for insects; darts about from one part of the tree to another with hanging wings and erected tail, making a feeble chirping, tsee, tsee, no louder than a mouse. Though so small in itself, it is ambitious of hunting on the high est branches, and is seldom seen among the humbler thickets. It remains with us until the twentieth or twenty-eighth of September, after which we see no more of it until the succeeding spring. I observed this bird near Savannah, in Georgia, early in March; but it does not winter even in the southern parts of that state. The length of this species is four inches and a half, extent six and a half; front and line over the eye black; bill black, very slender, overhanging at the tip, notched, broad, and furnished with bristles at the base; the colour of the plumage above is a light bluish gray, bluest on the head, below bluish white; tail longer than the body, a little rounded and black, except the exterior feathers, which are almost all white, and the next two also tipt with white; tail coverts black; wings brownish black, some of the secondaries next the body edged with white; legs extremely slender, about three-fourths of an inch long, and of a bluish black colour. The female is distinguished by wanting the black line round the front. The food of this bird is small winged insects and their larvæ, but particularly the former, which it seems almost always in pursuit of. YELLOW-THROATED FLYCATCHER. [Plate VII.-Fig. 3.] PEALE'S Museum, No. 6827. THIS Summer species is found chiefly in the woods, hunting among the high branches; and has an indolent and plaintive note, which it repeats, with some little variation, every ten or twelve seconds, like preeo-preea, &c. It is often heard in company with the Red-eyed Flycatcher (Muscicapa olivacea), or WhipTom-Kelly of Jamaica; the loud energetic notes of the latter, mingling with the soft languid warble of the former, producing an agreeable effect, particularly during the burning heat of noon, when almost every other songster but these two is silent. Those who loiter through the shades of our magnificent forests at that hour, will easily recognize both species. It arrives from the south early in May, and returns again with its young about the middle of September. Its nest, which is sometimes fixed on the upper side of a limb, sometimes on a horizontal branch among the twigs, generally on a tree, is composed outwardly of thin strips of the bark of grape-vines, moss, lichens, &c., and lined with fine fibres of such like substances; the eggs, usually four, are white, thinly dotted with black, chiefly near the great end. Winged insects are its principal food. Whether this species has been described before or not I must leave to the sagacity of the reader, who has the opportunity of examining European works of this kind, to discover. † I have met with no description in Pennant, Buffon, or Latham, that will properly apply to this bird, which may perhaps be owing * Vireo flavifrons, Ois. de l'Am. Sept. VIEILLOT, pl. 54. VOL. II.-0 0 to the imperfection of the account, rather than ignorance of the species, which is by no means rare. The Yellow-throated Flycatcher is five inches and a half long, and nine inches from tip to tip of the expanded wings; the upper part of the head, sides of the neck, and the back, are of a fine yellow olive; throat, breast and line over the eye, which it nearly encircles, a delicate lemon yellow, which in a lighter tinge lines the wings; belly and vent pure silky white; lesser wing coverts, lower part of the back, and rump, ash; wings deep brown, almost black, crossed with two white bars; primaries edged with light ash, secondaries with white; tail a little forked, of the same brownish black with the wings, the three exterior feathers edged on each vane with white; legs and claws light blue; the two exterior toes united to the middle one as far as the second joint; bill broad at the base, with three or four slight bristles, the upper mandible overhanging the lower at the point, near which it is deeply notched; tongue thin, broad, tapering near the end, and bifid; the eye is of a dark hazel; and the whole bill of a dusky light blue. The female differs very little in colour from the male; the yellow on the breast and round the eye is duller, and the white on the wings less pure. |