OF NEW ENGLAND. 273 
The three genera of smaller flycatchers may be distinguished 
as follows: 
Sayornis (III). Tail forked, frequently flirted ; tarsus longer 
than the middle toe. Contopus (IV). Tail slightly forked, 
never (?) flirted; tarsus shorter than the middle toe. Hmpi- 
donax (V). Tail even or rounded, and depressed upon the 
utterance of the very abrupt energetic, song-note, when the 
head is thrown back also. 
I. TYRANNUS 
(A) carouinensis. (Tyrant Flycatcher.) King-bird. Bee 
“Martin.” Field ‘‘Martin.” 
(A common summer-resident in New England.) 
(a). About eight inches long. Above, very dark gray, 
slightly brownish on the wings. Crown and tail, black; the 
latter broadly white-tipped, the former with erectile crown- 
feathers touched with orange or vermilion. (Many wing- 
feathers, and the outermost tail-feathers, white-edged.) 
[The Gray King-bird (7. Dominicensis) is about nine inches 
long, and is rather grayer, with the ‘“‘tail conspicuously forked,” 
and not broadly white-tipped. ‘‘An immature specimen was 
taken by Mr. Charles Goodall, at Lynn, on October 23, 1868 ;” 
‘its usual habitat being Florida and the West Indies.” ] 
(0). The nest of our King-bird is commonly placed, from — 
five to fifteen feet above the ground, in a horizontal fork, or on 
the limb, of an orchard-tree. Sometimes it is built, even 
nearer to the ground, in the crotch of a low sapling or stout 
bush, in some field or pasture. It is composed of the fine 
stalks of various weeds and grasses, intermixed with plant- 
down, to which are often attached bits of ‘‘ sweet fern,” dead 
leaves, or moss, and it is frequently lined with horse-hairs. It 
is, in this State, finished about the first of June. The eggs of 
each set are four or five, and average 1:00 X *75 of an inch. 
They are creamy-white, with a few large spots of lilac, and 
umber, or occasionally reddish-brown. These spots are some- 
times replaced by blotches, and, in two specimens before me, 
by large splashes of several shades of brown. 
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