SPECIES 7. MUSCICrfPrf CJERULEA. 



BLUE-GRAY FLYCATCHER. 



[Plate XVIII. Fig. 5.] 



Motacilla ccerulea, TURTON, Syst. i, p. 612. Blue Flycatcher, 

 EWD. PI. 302, Regulus griseus, the little Bluish Gray Wren, 

 BARTRAM, p. 291. Lefiguier gris de fer, BUFF. v,p. 309. 

 Ccerulean Warbler, Jlrct. Zool. n, JVo. 299. LATH. Syn. iv, p. 

 490, JVo. 127 PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 6829. 



THIS diminutive species, but for the length of the tail, would 

 rank next to our Humming-bird in magnitude. It is a very dex- 

 terous Flycatcher, and has also something of the manners of 

 the Titmouse, with whom, in early spring and fall, it frequent- 

 ly associates. It arrives in Pennsylvania from the south about 

 the middle of April ; and about the beginning of May builds its 

 nest, which it generally fixes among the twigs of a tree, some- 

 times at the height of ten feet from the ground, sometimes fifty 

 feet high, on the extremities of the tops of a high tree in the 

 woods. This nest is formed of very slight and perishable ma- 

 terials, the husks of buds, stems of old leaves, withered blos- 

 soms of weeds, down from the stalks of fern, coated on the 

 outside with gray lichen, and lined with a few horse hairs. Yet 

 in this frail receptacle, which one would think scarcely suffi- 

 cient to admit the body of the owner, and sustain even its 

 weight, does the female Cow-bird venture to deposit her egg; 

 and to the management of these pigmy nurses leaves the fate 

 of her helpless young. The motions of this little bird are quick; 

 he seems always on the look out for insects; darts about from 

 one part of the tree to another with hanging wings and erected 

 tail, making a feeble chirping, tsee, tsee, no louder than a mouse. 

 Though so small in itself, it is ambitious of hunting on the high- 



