50 C. H. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. 



Butcher Bird chase a Barred Owl for the space of half an hour, 

 closely following him to and fro through the woods, till I put an end 

 to his misery by shooting both. 



1 20. MilvilhlS forficatUS (GTmelin) 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 specimen of this species was shot by 

 Mr. Carpenter, at Wauregan, Conn., about April 27, 1876. The 

 bird first attracted Mr. Carpenter's attention by its opening and 

 closing the tail while flying about a small sheet of water in quest of 

 insects. The only other Eastern United States capture of this spe- 

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

 recorded by Dr. 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 ; creeping 

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

 while opening and shutting the long scissor-like tail."f Its proper 

 habitat is the lower part of the Mississippi Valley and Texas, thence 

 southward into South America. 



121. MyiarchllS CrinitUS (Linne) Cabanis. Great-crested Flycatcher. 



A common summer resident, generally placing its well-known 

 snake-skin-lined nest in the hollow limb of some old apple tree, or 

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

 Sage), and Mr. W. W. Coe has taken its nest (four eggs) as late as 

 June. 13th, (1873). The history of this bird affords us a remarkably 

 good 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,"J 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 crinitus), year after year, but all in vain; and what made 

 the fact very singular was, that twelve or fifteen miles off, I 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.. 

 f American Naturalist, vol. vi, No. 6, p. 367, June, 1872. 

 \ Am. Nat., vol. vii, No. 7, p. 390-91, July, 1873. 



