148 RED-EYED FLYCATCHER. 



this bird winters, and is probably also resident, it is called, as Sloane 

 informs us, " Whip-Tom Kelly," from an imagined resemblance of its 

 notes to these words. And indeed, on attentively listening for some 

 time to this bird in his full ardor of song, it requires but little of imagi- 

 nation to fancy that you hear it pronounce these words, " Tom Kelly ! 

 Whip-Tom Kelly!" very distinctly. It inhabits from Georgia to the 

 river St. Lawrence, leaving Pennsylvania about the middle of Sep- 

 tember. 



This bird builds in the month of May a small neat pensile nest, 

 generally suspended between two twigs of a young dogwood or other 

 small sapling. It is hung by the two upper edges, seldom at a greater 

 height than four or five feet from the ground. It is formed of pieces 

 of hornets' nests, some flax, fragments of withered leaves, slips of vine 

 bark, bits of paper, all glued together with the saliva of the bird, and 

 the silk of caterpillars, so as to be very compact ; the inside is lined 

 with fine slips of grape-vine bark, fibrous grass, and sometimes hair. 

 These nests are so durable that I have often known them to resist the 

 action of the weather for a year ; and in one instance I found the nest 

 of the Yellow-bird built in the cavity of one of these of the preceding 

 year. The mice very often take possession of them after they are 

 abandoned by the owners. The eggs are four, sometimes five, pure 

 white, except near the great end, where they are marked with a few 

 small dots of dark brown or reddish. They generally raise two broods 

 in a season. 



The Red-eyed Flycatcher is one of the adopted nurses of the Cow- 

 bird, and a very favorite one, showing all the symptoms of afi"cction for 

 the foundling, and as much solicitude for its safety, as if it were its own. 

 The figure of that singular bird, accompanied by a particular account 

 of its history, is given in Plate XVIII. of the present work. 



Before I take leave of this bird, it may not be amiss to observe that 

 there is another, and a rather less species of Flycatcher, somewhat 

 resembling the Red-eyed, which is frequently found in its company. 

 Its eyes are hazel, its back more cinereous than the other, and it has 

 a single light streak over the eye. The notes of this bird are low, 

 somewhat plaintive, but warbled out with great sweetness ; and form a 

 striking contrast with those of the Red-eyed Flycatcher. I think it 

 probable that Dr. Barton had reference to this bird when he made the 

 following remarks. See his " Fragments of the Natural History of 

 Pennsylvania," page 19. '^ Muscicapa olivacea. — I do not think with 

 Mr. Pennant that this is the same bird as the Whip-Tom-Kelly of the 

 West Indies. Our bird has no such note ; but a great variety of soft, 

 tender and agreeable notes. It inhabits forests ; and does not, like the 

 West India bird, build a pendulous nest." Had the learned Professor, 

 however, examined into this matter with his usual accuracy, he would 



