FLYCATCHERS. 125 



FAMILY III. 

 THE FLYCATCHERS. MUSCICAPID.E.* 



General Characteristics. — Bill of various lengths, generally broad and depressed 

 at the base, with the culmen more or less curved, and the sides compressed to the 

 tip, which is emarginate ; the gape usually furnished with long and strong bristles ; 

 wings generally long ; tail more or less long, and the outer toe generally united at 

 the base. 



The Flycatchers, as their name imports, feed exclusively upon 

 insects, which are captured by their bill during flight ; their orga- 

 nization is, therefore, in strict conformity with this habit. The 

 wings are not formed for such rapidity of movement as those of 

 the swallows, since the flycatchers do not pursue their prey to any 

 distance ; but this deficiency is compensated by a very unusual 

 breadth of the mouth, the sides of which are moreover furnished 

 with long rigid bristles pointing forwards. Thus provided, the 

 flycatcher darts upon an insect with unerring certainty, since, if 

 it fails to get a firm hold of it with its beak, the bristles standing 

 out on each side restrain the struggles of its victim, and at the 

 same time prevent either its eyes or face from being injured by 

 the claws or wings of the insect. This structure is slightly de- 

 veloped in several groups of the Warblers, and, indeed, the two 

 families are so closely related, that ornithologists are perpetually 

 confounding the one with the other. Both are flycatching families, 

 but with some remarkable differencfes. The Warblers pursue the 

 chase from tree to tree : they are continually wandering about 

 and hunting up their game ; whereas the true flycatchers are se- 

 dentary. They choose some convenient station, generally near 

 their nest, from which they dart upon their prey, and after every 

 capture almost invariably return to the same perch. The family 

 of the Flycatchers includes the Mourners, the Alectrures, the 

 Tyrants, the Becards, the True Flycatchers, and the Greenlets. 



* Musca, afly; capio, to catch. 



