TYRAXN1D.E — THE FLYCATCHERS. 323 



Mr. Audubon states that this Flycatcher reaches the Florida Keys about 

 the first of A})ril. He describes their usual flight as pert'ornied l)y a con- 

 stant liutter of tlie wings, except wlien in chase, when they exhibit con- 

 siderable power and speed. He noticed them pursue larger birds, such as 

 Herons, Crows, Cuckoos, Grakles, and Hawks, following them (piite a dis- 

 tance. They did not molest the Doves. They built their nests in a manner 

 similar to the Kingbird, on the horizontal branches of tlie mangrove, almost 

 invariably on the western side of the tree and oH the isLind. Some were not 

 more than two feet above the water, others were twenty feet. On one of the 

 keys, although of small size, he saw several of their nest.s, and more than 

 a dozen of the Vurds living amicably together. 



Dr. J. G. Cotiper, who visited Florida in the spring of 18")!), informed me, 

 by letter, on his return, that when he reached Cai)e F'lorida, March 8, none 

 of this si)ecies were to be seen on any of the keys. The first he noticed were 

 about the first of May, near Fort Dallas on the mainland. As, however, it 

 rarely appears at this jdace, he sui)poses they reached the keys some weeks 

 sooner. About ^lay 14 he found .several pairs at the Cape, and, going up 

 the coast to New Smyrna, he found them abundant about the marshy islands. 

 On the first of June, with a companion, he went in a small boat for the ex- 

 press purj)ose of finding their nests ; and, pushing the boat about among the 

 islands which almost filled Mosi^uito Lagoon, he discovered three in one after- 

 noon. Thev were all built amonu: the small branchl'S of low dead mangrove- 

 trees, about ten feet from the ground, formed of a loose, open flooring of 

 small twigs, with scarcely any lining of a finer material. One contained four 

 eggs half hatched, another three young and one eg^^, the third four young 

 just hatched. He i)reserved one nest and all the eggs, and presented them 

 to the National Museum in Washington. The old birds showed no resent- 

 ment, and neither came near nor followed him, differing very much in this 

 res})ect from the fearless and devoted Kingbird. The only notes this bird 

 was heard to utter were loud and harsh rattling cries. Dr. Bachman in- 

 formed Dr. Cooper that these birds had become quite regular summer visi- 

 tants of Charleston, where they continued to breed each season. Dr. Cooper 

 saw none away from the Florida coast, and thinks that none go inland. 



The eggs of this species measure from 1 to 1.05 inches in length, and from 

 .70 to .72 of an inch in breadth. They are of an oblong oval shape, vari- 

 ously marked with large blotches and smaller spots of purple, red-brown, 

 and a dark purplish-brown. The latter color, in a few cases, is found in 

 large masses, covering nearly a fifth of the entire surface of the e'^g ; not 

 inaptly compared by ^Ir. Gosse to the sinuous outlines of lands, as repre- 

 sented on a terrestrial globe. 



