THE KING-BIRD. 323 



its first arrival to a little before its departure in September. 

 On the 27th of February I heard this bird in the southern 

 parts of the state of Georgia, in considerable numbers, singing 

 with great vivacity. They had only arrived a few days be- 

 fore. Its arrival at the north, after an interval of seven 

 weeks, is a proof that our birds of passage, particularly the 

 smaller species, do not migrate at once from south to north-, 

 but progress daily, keeping company, as it were, with the 

 advances of spring. It has been observed in the neighbor- 

 hood of Savannah, so late as the middle of November ; and 

 probably winters in Mexico, and the West Indies. 



This bird builds a very neat little nest, often in the figure 

 of an inverted cone ; it is suspended by the upper edge of the 

 two sides, on the circular bend of a prickly vine, a species of 

 Smilax that generally grows in low thickets. Outwardly it 

 is constructed of various light materials, bits of rotten wood, 

 fibres of dry stalks, of weeds, pieces of paper, commonly news- 

 papers, an article almost always found about its nest, so that 

 some of my friends have given it the name of the Politician ; 

 all these substances are interwoven with the silk of caterpil- 

 lars, and the inside is lined with fine dry grass and hair. 

 The female lays five eggs, pure white, marked near the great 

 end with a very few small dots of deep black or purple. They 

 generally raise two brood in a season. They seem particu- 

 larly attached to thickets of this species of Smilax, and make 

 a great ado when any one comes near their nest ; approach- 

 ing within a few feet, looking down, and scolding with great 

 vehemence. In Pennsylvania they are a numerous species. 



The White-eyed Flycatcher is five inches and a quarter 

 long, and seven in extent ; the upper parts are a fine yellow- 

 olive, those below white, except the sides of the breast, and 

 under the wings, which are yellow ; line round the eye, and 

 spot near the nostril also rich yellow ; wings deep dusky 

 black, edged with olive green, and crossed with two bars of 

 pale yellow ; tail forked, brownish black, edged with green 

 olive ; bill, legs and feet light blue ; the sides of the neck in- 

 cline to a grayish ash. The female, and young of the first 



