YELLOW-THROATED FLYCATCHER. 143 



always on the lookout for insects ; darts about from one part of the tree 

 to another with hanging wings and erected tail, making a feeble chirp- 

 ings, tsee, tsee, no louder than a mouse. Though so small in itself, it is 

 ambitious of hunting on the highest 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 succeed- 

 ing 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, over- 

 hanging at the tip, notched, broad, and furnished with bristles at the 

 base ; the color 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 tipped 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 color. The female is distinguished by wanting the black line 

 round the front. 



The food of this bird is small wdnged insects and their larvae, but 

 particularly the former, which it seems almost always in pursuit of. 



Species VIIL MUSCWAPA SYLVICOLA* 



YELLOW-THROATED FLYCATCHER. 



[Plate VII. Fig. 3.] 



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 Fly- 

 catcher (Museieapa olivacea), or Whip-Tom-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 burn- 

 ing 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 recognise 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 



* Vireo flavifrons, Ois. de VAm. Sept. Vieillot, pL 54. 



