PASSERES — SYLVICOLID^E — CULIC1VORA. 109 



GENUS CULICIVORA. Swainson. 



3ill moderate, depressed, rapidly attenuated to a slender tip. Upper mandible with a distinct 

 ridge ; the tip narrow, bent. Bristles at the base of the bill. Tarsus very slender, with 

 the upper scutella indistinct, longer than the middle toe : hind toe larger. Second or 

 fourth quill longest. Tail longer than the body, slender, rounded. 



Obs. This genus was founded by Swainson on a species detached from Muscicapa, and 

 •onnects this family with the succeeding. 



THE BLUE-GREY GNATCATCHER. 



CULICIVORA CffiRULEA. 

 PLATE LVI. FIG. 126 (Male). 

 (STATE COLLECTION.) 



Muscicapa ccerulea. Wilson, Am. Oin. Vol. 2, p. 16-), pi. 18, fig. 5. 



Sylvia ccerulea. Bonapakte, Ann. Lye. N. York, Vol. 2, p. 85. 



Muscicapa id. Auddbon, folio, pi. 84; Orn. Biog. Vol. 1, p. 431. 



Blue-grey Sylva?i Flycatcher. Nuttall, Man. Ornith. Vol. 1, p. 297. 



Culicivora ccerulea, Bonap. Aodubon, B. of A. Vol. 2, p. 244, pi. 70. Giraud, Birds of Long Island, p. 46. 



Characteristics. Bluish grey; beneath bluish white. Tail black. Female, without the 

 black band over the forehead and eyes. Length, four and a half inches. 



Description, of a young male shot May 5, Orange county. Bill somewhat straight, 

 flattened, curved at the tip : notch conspicuous. A few porrect bristles at the base of the 

 bill. Tail rounded, 1 ■ 3 longer than the tips of the folded wings. Second quill-feather 

 longest. 



Color. Light blue. Summit of the head with an anterior black marginal stripe. Rump 

 white. Primaries brown, edged on their external vanes with white. The outer tail-feather 

 white on both vanes for more than two-thirds of its whole length ; the next white along the 

 greater part of its outer vane, and on its inner vane towards the tip ; the suceeding feather 

 obscurely tipped with white. Throat soiled white ; breast bluish white ; belly and vent pure 

 white. The adult male has the dark black band of the frontlet extending in a narrow line 

 over the eye ; the tail glossy black. Female, with the tints of blue not so bright, and the 

 black frontlet and line over the eye wanting. 



Length, 4 - 5. Alar extent, 6 - 5. 



This lively little Gnatcatcher is found, according to Lichtenstein, in Mexico during the 

 winter. It arrives in Louisiana about the middle of March, and in this State is seen in the 



