50 C H. Merriam — Birds of Cormecticiit. 



Butcher Bird chase a Barred Owl for the sjiace of lialf an hour, 

 closely following him to and fro through the woods, till I })ut an end 

 to his misery by shooting both. 



1 20, MilvuluS forficatUS (Gmelin) Sw. Swallow-tailed Flycatcher. 



An extremely rare accidental visitor. The only record of its 

 capture in this State is that recently published by Mr. H. A. Purdie : 

 " Mr. Jencks informs me that a s])ecimen of this species was shot by 

 Mr. Carpenter, at Wanregan, Cloim., about April 27, 1870. The 

 bird first attracted Mr. Car|)enter's attention by its opening and 

 closing the tail while Hying about a small sheet of water in (piest of 

 insects. Tlie only other Eastern ITnited States capture of this spe- 

 cies, is a male taken at Trenton, New Jersey, a few years ago, as 

 recorded by T)r. C. C. Abbott."* Dr. Abbott's specimen was shot 

 on the 15th of April, 1872, and " when captured, was busily engaged 

 in picking semi-dormant insects from the bark of the trees ; cree])ing 

 about very much as is the custom of (Jerthia familiaris, and all the 

 while opening and shutting the long scissor like tail."f Its i)ro])er 

 habitat is the lower part ol' the Mississippi Valley and Texas, thence 

 southward into South America. 



121. Myiarchus CrinitUS (Linnr) Cahanis. Great-crested Flycatrhor. 



A common summer resident, generally placing its well-known 

 snake-skin-lined nest in the hollow limb of some old ai)ple tree, or 

 rotten fence-post. Arrives early in May (May 8, 1873, Hartford, 

 Sao-e), and Mr. W. W. C'oe has taken its nest (four eggs) as late as 

 June 18th, (1873). The history of this bird affords us a reniMrkably 

 o-ood example of the change in habitat of a species during a compara- 

 tively brief period of years. 



Mr. T, Martin Trippe, in one of his interesting articles on "The 

 Irregular Migrations of Birds,";}; thus details his experience with the 

 bird in question : " In a series of several years close observation at 

 Orange, New Jersey, I searched for the Great-crested Flycatcher 

 [Myiarchus crinitiis), year after year, but all in vain ; and what made 

 the fact very singular was, that twelve or fifteen miles oft*, 1 had 

 seen the bird sufficiently often to convince me that if not common, 

 it was by no means rare. Yet for some inexplicable reason it did not 



* Bulletin Nuttall Ornithological Club, vol. ii, No. 1, p. 21, Jan., 1877. 

 \ American Naturalist, vol. vi, No. fi, p. :!G7, June, 1872. 

 X Am. Nat, vol. vii, No. 7, p. :?90-91, July, 1873. 



